Liquid Federation expands, aims to strengthen Bitcoin financial infrastructure

The Liquid Federation, a consortium of major exchanges, Bitcoin infrastructure companies, and wallet providers, has welcomed six new members. 

Liquid Network, a layer-2 solution enabling the settlement and issuance of crypto assets on Bitcoin, announced in a June 2 blog post on its official website that Bcademy, Boltz Exchange, Equitas Foundation, JAN3, Maven, and Mifiel have joined the Liquid Federation. 

The new members have expanded the Federation’s total membership to 67, further diversifying its global reach.

The six firms joined the Federation following its annual board election on April 18. In the election, each new member had a representative joining one of the three boards that operate and govern the Liquid Network, namely its membership, oversight, and technical boards.

Liquid stated that adding the six new members will enable the Liquid Federation to expand its global presence, fostering innovation and opening new opportunities for users seeking to transact on Bitcoin’s financial layer.

The Network also said that as the Federation matures, its diverse membership and unique contributions will solidify Bitcoin’s position as a versatile and accessible financial ecosystem.

Lightning Network grows global footprint

The new members all utilize the Liquid Network in their operations. Bcademy provides Bitcoin-related education, training, consultation, and custom development services in Italy. 

It leverages Liquid’s capabilities to manage fungible and non-fungible tokens, facilitate transfers across Bitcoin’s various layers and side-chains, and offer clients access to Liquid Bitcoin through its OTC service desk.

Boltz Exchange is a non-custodial bitcoin (BTC) exchange and Lightning Service Provider (LSP). It enables Lightning node operators to re-balance their channels via Liquid, reducing operational costs in high-fee environments.

Another new federation member, Maven, exclusively deals with real-world assets on the Liquid blockchain. It was the first marketplace to sell real estate as a non-fungible token (NFT), with ownership recorded on Liquid.

The addition of the six companies to the Lightning Federation comes soon after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) hinted at the crypto exchange adopting the L2 scaling solution.

CZ said in a June 2 Twitter Space that Binance is actively investigating the integration of the Lightning Network into its exchange platform. However, he emphasized that the implementation process is significantly more intricate than it may appear at first glance.