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Cutting Swap Settlements from 10 Minutes to Under a Second

How Boltz unlocked idle capital and became the onramp for every Lightning-connected user and businesses on Arkade.

A pioneer of non-custodial swaps across Bitcoin layers

Founded in 2019, Boltz is one of the highest-volume non-custodial bridge in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Its infrastructure powers wallets, payment processors, and exchanges that need to move funds between Bitcoin mainchain, Lightning, Liquid, and Rootstock.

No accounts

No KYC

Trustless Atomic Swaps

Boltz uses cryptographic guarantees instead of custodial promises, and has maintained that approach to become the default liquidity layer for dozens of products across the Bitcoin stack.

The Problem

The confirmation bottleneck

Boltz supports swaps across multiple Bitcoin layers. Each layer settles at a different speed. The bottleneck is always the same: Bitcoin's onchain confirmation latency.

When a swap includes a mainchain leg, capital sits locked in an HTLC until the transaction confirms. During that window, Boltz's liquidity is stale.

For Boltz, that means one thing: every onchain swap ties up capital that could be serving the next swap.

5–10 min

Bitcoin onchain

~1 min

Liquid

< 1 sec

Arkade

The Integration

Moving swaps offchain

Arkade replaces the need for onchain confirmation with instant offchain settlement while preserving the atomic, non-custodial guarantees Boltz is built on.

Instead of broadcasting a Bitcoin transaction and waiting for a confirmation, Boltz can settle the mainchain leg through Arkade's virtual UTXOs. The swap output is generated as an Arkade deposit rather than an onchain UTXO. Same cryptographic security. No confirmation delay.

Initiate

User starts a swap (e.g., Lightning to Arkade) through the Boltz interface.

Lock

Boltz creates a VHTLC in Arkade's Virtual Mempool with the payment hash. When the Lightning payment arrives, funds lock in the VHTLC.

Settle

User claims using the preimage, completing the swap instantly. No blocks required.

Recover

If anything fails, automatic refund paths ensure no funds are lost. Users can always exit unilaterally to Bitcoin L1.

The Impact

Capital efficiency at scale

For Boltz, Arkade’s integration creates a swap corridor where capital recycles instantly.

Liquidity that previously sat locked for every onchain confirmation cycle is now redeployable in under a second, meaning the same pool can serve materially more volume without increasing capital requirements. As swap volume grows, the cost structure becomes more predictable rather than more expensive.

For the Arkade ecosystem, the impact goes further. Any user on Coinbase, Binance, or Kraken can deposit into Arkade-powered applications through Boltz without the exchange needing to support Arkade directly. Boltz becomes the onramp for the entire Lightning-connected user base from day one.

Developer Experience

A swap SDK that works out of the box

Ark Labs built a dedicated swap library @arkade-os/boltz-swap. Any wallet or application building on Arkade can adopt it.

swap.ts

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import { Wallet, MnemonicIdentity } from '@arkade-os/sdk';
import { ArkadeSwaps } from '@arkade-os/boltz-swap';

const identity = MnemonicIdentity.fromMnemonic(words);

const wallet = await Wallet.create({
  identity,
  arkServerUrl: 'https://arkade.computer',
});

const swaps = await ArkadeSwaps.create({ wallet });

const { invoice } = await swaps.createLightningInvoice({ amount:2100 });
console.log('Invoice:', invoice);

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import { Wallet, MnemonicIdentity } from '@arkade-os/sdk';
import { ArkadeSwaps } from '@arkade-os/boltz-swap';

const identity = MnemonicIdentity.fromMnemonic(words);

const wallet = await Wallet.create({
  identity,
  arkServerUrl: 'https://arkade.computer',
});

const swaps = await ArkadeSwaps.create({ wallet });

const { invoice } = await swaps.createLightningInvoice({ amount:2100 });
console.log('Invoice:', invoice);

TypeScript, Rust, Go

Native implementations for web and backend systems.

Persistent state

Swap state survives restarts and session interruptions.

Auto claim/refund

Background monitoring handles settlement and recovery automatically.

Open access

Any wallet building on Arkade can integrate swap capability.

What's Next

Beyond Bitcoin

Today, Boltz enables instant swaps for Bitcoin and Lightning on Arkade. Tomorrow, it enables swaps for everything.

When stablecoins and other asset types are issued natively on Arkade, Boltz becomes a global liquidity hub for cross-asset swaps, not just cross-layer ones.

Boltz

"Stablecoins are the critical bridge between the Bitcoin ecosystem and the global financial infrastructure. By facilitating everything from bank deposits to instant card top-ups, we are finally bringing Bitcoin to Main Street. We are proud to partner with Ark Labs to accelerate the convergence of these two worlds."

Kilian

Co-Founder, Boltz

See it live

Ready to integrate?

The Boltz integration is live on mainnet. The SDK is open. Your swap corridor is waiting.

SDK documentation

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