FinTech company SoFi Technologies announced the upcoming launch of international money transfers via the Lightning Network and the Lightspark blockchain solution. The pilot corridor will be from the United States to Mexico.
SoFi Technologies, a popular American FinTech company offering a wide range of financial services including asset management and digital banking, revealed plans to integrate the Lightning Network technology into its product lineup.
Specifically, the SoFi Checking & Savings app will integrate the Lightspark blockchain solution. The initiative will enable SoFi users to send cross-border transfers 24/7. The transfer model involves automatically converting the sender’s U.S. dollars into BTC, routing them through the Lightning Network, and instantly exchanging them into the recipient’s local currency. Conversion will happen in real time, with users able to view exchange rates and fees before confirming the transaction. Funds will arrive in the recipient’s bank account almost instantly.
The technical foundation of the project is the Universal Money Address (UMA), an infrastructure solution developed by Lightspark on top of the Lightning Network. UMA is essentially a “money address” standard, similar to how email works with simple and unique addresses. With UMA, funds can be sent abroad by knowing only the recipient’s address, making transfers as simple as sending an email.
The service will be available to 11.7 million SoFi Bank customers. The company claims fees will be below the U.S. average and transactions will remain fully transparent.
SoFi CEO Anthony Noto emphasized that the ability to send fast and low-cost transfers will significantly improve customers’ financial lives. Lightspark Co-Founder David Marcus noted that strong interest is already reflected in the high number of waitlist sign-ups.
The service will first launch in Mexico, one of the top destinations for remittances from the U.S., with annual cross-border flows exceeding $60 billion. SoFi plans to test the technology in this corridor before rapidly expanding it to other countries.
The Lightning Network is increasingly being used by payment providers for international transfers. For instance, Revolut recently enabled the Lightning Network support for users in the U.K. and select EU countries, while Nubank rolled out access to the Lightning Network for users in Latin America.
