Strike’s expansion and the Lightning Network security crisis

Walmart-backed OnePay, which Walmart and Ribbit Capital founded in 2021, integrates cryptocurrency trading and custody on its mobile app later this year with help from Zerohash. This fintech firm holds the number 5 spot on Apple’s free finance app rankings. You already know that OnePay provides access to 150 million weekly Walmart shoppers through its integrated checkout process. Strike CEO Jack Mallers announced that Walmart, McDonald’s, Chipotle, Macy’s, and Whole Foods will accept payments via the Lightning Network. Strike converts fiat to Bitcoin and Bitcoin back to fiat for both merchants and customers. The partnership with Checkout.com allows users in 65 countries to purchase Bitcoin using a debit card. This expansion bypasses traditional banking friction for users outside the U.S. who want to originate payments between currencies. Strike also allows users in the U.S. to send dollars to markets like Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and the Philippines, having raised an $80 million funding round in September 2022 led by Ten31. Checkout.com provides a card network gateway that brokers relationships with Visa and Mastercard, which allows for Bitcoin on-ramps for users globally without reliance on wire transfers or ACH. Strike’s CEO Jack Mallers said the company aims to be the Bitcoin company for the Earth.

BitPay and Strike processing fees

BitPay processed 3.8 million transactions in 2025, and e-commerce accounted for 48% of those volumes. I find the tiered fee structure at this processor cumbersome for small businesses, as BitPay charges 2% plus 25 cents for monthly volumes below $500,000. They reduce this to 1.5% plus 25 cents for volumes between $500,000 and $999,999, while large merchants paying over $1,000,000 monthly pay 1% plus 25 cents. In 2025, stablecoin payments through the USDC Payment Mode rose by 35%.

BitPay provides settlement in USD, EUR, AUD, and CAD across 38 countries. I would skip BitPay if you require the zero-fee benefits of a self-hosted solution like BTCPay Server. Because BTCPay Server requires you to manage your own node and liquidity, I would skip Strike if you need the multi-cryptocurrency support BitPay provides. Strike charges approximately 1% for merchant payment processing and provides Shopify integration for US merchants. The platform supports 38+ cryptocurrencies, including Solana and Litecoin. It also handles 130,250 Bitcoin transactions and 56,356 Ethereum transactions. I find the consumer review sentiment on BitPay to be very negative due to account access issues. BitPay has 130,000 merchants globally, and its transaction fees remain lower than traditional card stacks.

The Core Lightning security lockdown

The Lightning Network faces a security crisis because Core Lightning developers issued a 14-day lockdown on August 23, 2026. This response follows a wave of AI-generated vulnerability reports that began on August 13, 2026, and forced developers to tell operators to install signed emergency binaries or shut their nodes down immediately to prevent any potential exploitation. The affected network carries 2,640 BTC across 20,000 channels. This capacity shows a sharp decline from the 5,637 BTC peak in December 2025. I find the sudden need for a 14-day embargo to protect 3,750 BTC from AI-discovered bugs incredibly unsettling. The developers prioritize signed, reproducible builds over speed, so they treat version 26.04 as insecure to ensure that operators do not run vulnerable software. This incident involves 33,000 channels and 3,750 BTC on the line. The capacity of the Lightning Network fell from a peak of 5,637 BTC in December 2025 to roughly 2,640 BTC by August 2026. I find the decision to keep vulnerability details private while attackers use AI to hunt bugs highly problematic. Does the rapid discovery of bugs by AI tools make the current disclosure timelines obsolete?