Lightning Labs has opened Wavelength to everyone on the Bitcoin mainnet, giving AI agents a way to send and receive payments while setting an initial account limit of 300,000 satoshis.
Summary
- Wavelength’s public mainnet rollout follows a July alpha release that required invitations for mainnet access.
- AI agents can buy API access through L402 and operate wallets using MCP tools.
- Lightning payments carry a 0.25% service fee for sending and receiving, plus routing charges.
- Stablecoin support remains planned, while the wallet uses swaps to connect its balances with Lightning.
Lightning Labs announced the public rollout on Oct. 23, allowing developers to install a client, create a wallet, and start using real bitcoin without operating a Lightning node or managing payment channels.
In its announcement, Michael Levin described agents paying for individual API calls, data feeds and services supplied by other agents. Payments can proceed without a person approving each transaction, according to the company.
The rollout follows Wavelength’s July announcement, when signet and testnet access was open to everyone, but mainnet use required an invitation. Levin said the product remains in alpha despite the opening of mainnet access.
Wavelength connects agents through MCP and L402
With its July release, Lightning Labs described a wallet interface built around structured commands and JSON responses. Its launch material lists installation support for coding agents including Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot, and Gemini CLI.
For agents operating the wallet, the toolkit uses Model Context Protocol, or MCP, which exposes wallet functions as tools an AI system can call. The project’s public repository documents a command that starts the MCP server, alongside wallet operations for sending, receiving, checking balances, and reviewing activity.
Lightning Labs’ July announcement explains how L402 handles paid services. An agent requests a resource, the server returns a Lightning invoice, and payment grants access without an existing account or a separately provisioned API key.
Developers can use the same interface to sell access to their own services, the company said. An agent can therefore receive payment for an endpoint as well as spend bitcoin when calling someone else’s.
Wallet creation and unlocking remain outside the agent channel, according to the launch material, keeping seed phrases and passwords away from the model. The October release introduces receive-only credentials that cannot sign transactions, recover funds, or administer the wallet.
The public repository describes a long-running wallet process with gRPC and REST interfaces, giving host applications another way to call its functions.
Wavelength uses swaps to connect with Lightning
The developer documentation describes a client that holds users’ keys, tracks balances and signs payments, while a managed operator handles coordination and settlement through an Ark-like system. Loop supplies the Lightning liquidity used by the operator.
Its payment documentation explains that receiving a Lightning transfer involves an atomic swap into Ark. When sending, the process runs in reverse, moving value from the wallet’s Ark balance to payment of a Lightning invoice.
Users interact with standard BOLT 11 invoices, according to the system guide, allowing the wallet to send payments to and receive them from existing Lightning applications.
The swap guide notes that server liquidity and operator availability affect payment processing. Transfers can remain pending for seconds or minutes, and the wallet includes refund recovery when a payment expires or a swap times out.
In its withdrawal documentation, Wavelength distinguishes ordinary cooperative withdrawals from unilateral exits. A cooperative withdrawal needs the operator to co-sign, while an emergency exit broadcasts previously signed transactions without that cooperation.
The documentation warns that unilateral exits take longer and cost more. Bitcoin timelocks must expire, several on-chain transactions may be needed, and users may need to fund a wallet to cover network fees.
Bitcoin payments carry a 0.25% service fee
For the public mainnet release, Lightning Labs lists a 300,000-satoshi account ceiling and a 50,000-satoshi limit for each virtual transaction output. Lightning payments carry a 0.25% service charge for both sending and receiving, plus normal routing fees.
Deposits and withdrawals have separate charges, according to the announcement, with an estimated cost shown before payment. Users making a unilateral exit pay Bitcoin network fees.
Levin described the release as “still an alpha,” asking developers to report problems and missing features.
Stablecoin payments remain planned, with the July announcement identifying Taproot Assets as the intended route for supporting them through the same interface.
Coinbase, Stripe and Block offer other agent payment tools
U.S. exchange Coinbase introduced Agentic Wallets in February, letting software hold funds, make payments and trade under developer-defined controls. As crypto.news previously reported, its autonomous wallet tools include transaction limits and session spending caps.
Coinbase’s own launch announcement describes security controls that keep private keys within its infrastructure, alongside checks intended to screen risky activity.
Stripe entered the market with x402 payments on Base in February, when its product manager Jeff Weinstein outlined a preview for charging agents in USDC.
Stripe’s current machine-payments documentation lists USDC on Base for x402, with payments settling into a merchant’s Stripe balance in fiat. Its stablecoin option is available to businesses across the United States except New York, subject to Stripe’s access review.
Bitcoin is present within x402 as well. In September, Block contributed Lightning payment support after joining the x402 Foundation, according to its announcement and the earlier coverage of its Lightning payment integration.
Block describes x402 as network and currency agnostic, using HTTP’s Payment Required response to request payment during a web interaction. Its published plans include further Lightning contributions and participation in the foundation’s working groups.
