BTC → stablecoins in one hop: Breez SDK routes Lightning sats into USDC on 30+ chains 🚀

Breez, a Bitcoin infrastructure company, has rolled out a feature in its developer toolkit that lets users send USDC (USDC) or USDt (USDT) across more than 30 blockchain networks directly from a Bitcoin balance, without first converting or holding stablecoins. The capability uses the Lightning Network alongside automated conversion to route payments from $BTC to USDC or USDT before delivering funds to the recipient's preferred chain, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

When a user enters a recipient's wallet address, the Breez SDK identifies the destination blockchain, calculates a conversion route and displays the amount, network and fees before the payment is confirmed. The transaction is then routed through liquidity providers Flashnet and Boltz, which convert the sender's Bitcoin into stablecoins and deliver them on the recipient's chosen blockchain.

Roy Sheinfeld, CEO of Breez, said the feature does not require USDT or USDC to be issued on the Lightning Network. Instead, it relies on "interoperability" to let users spend from a Bitcoin balance while recipients receive stablecoins on supported blockchain networks. Breez stated that users continue holding Bitcoin until they initiate a payment, and recipients receive stablecoins on their preferred blockchain without the sender having to manage separate stablecoin balances. The feature is non-custodial and initially supports only outbound stablecoin payments, with support for receiving stablecoins from external networks planned for a future release.

The launch comes as firms expand Bitcoin and the Lightning Network — a layer-2 payment network designed to make Bitcoin transactions faster and less expensive — into new financial and commercial applications. In February, Secure Digital Markets, an institutional trading and lending desk, completed a $1 million Bitcoin payment to Kraken over the Lightning Network in less than half a second, demonstrating the protocol's potential for high-value institutional transfers. The same month, Bitcoin infrastructure company Voltage introduced a US dollar-settled revolving credit line that embeds business credit into Lightning payment flows, allowing companies to settle repayments in either US dollars or Bitcoin.