How to Accept Lightning Payments for Your Business With IBEX
IBEX makes accepting Bitcoin Lightning payments practical for businesses of any size. Here's how their infrastructure works and what to consider.
When El Salvador announced its national Bitcoin adoption in 2021, someone had to build the infrastructure that could handle millions of people suddenly receiving $30 in BTC from the government. IBEX was one of the companies that stepped up, processing high volumes of Lightning payments across the country's retail ecosystem, including chains like Starbucks, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut.
That real-world stress test offers a useful lens for understanding what IBEX does: it abstracts away the considerable complexity of running Lightning Network infrastructure so merchants can accept Bitcoin payments without becoming node operators.
What IBEX Actually Provides
The Lightning Network enables Bitcoin transactions that settle in seconds and cost fractions of a cent. But running your own Lightning node requires managing payment channels, maintaining liquidity on both sides of those channels, optimizing routing algorithms, and keeping everything online 24/7. Most businesses have no interest in this.
IBEX, founded in 2018 as a Bitcoin OTC desk before pivoting to become what they call the "world's first Lightning-as-a-Service" provider, handles all of that backend complexity. Their hybrid architecture combines non-custodial merchant wallets (you retain control of your funds) with professionally-maintained Lightning infrastructure (they handle the technical operations).
In practice, this means merchants get a dashboard that generates QR codes for payments, handles fiat conversion automatically, and manages liquidity without requiring any Lightning expertise. Deposits arrive within 24 hours, either to a Bitcoin on-chain address or converted to fiat.
Integration Options
For e-commerce, IBEX Pay offers plugins for major platforms including Shopify, WooCommerce, MIVA, and Ecwid. Their API-driven architecture also enables custom integrations, which is how they've deployed across thousands of retail locations in Latin America.
The setup is designed to be plug-and-play rather than requiring deep technical work. That said, any payment integration requires testing, staff training, and accounting considerations that will vary by business.
The Broader Lightning Context
Lightning adoption has grown meaningfully: from 6.5% of Bitcoin payments in Q2 2022 to 16.6% in Q2 2024, according to industry data. Public network capacity reached approximately 5,358 BTC (around $509 million) by January 2025.
These numbers suggest genuine traction, though Lightning remains a small fraction of overall payment volume. The technology works well for certain use cases (small to medium transactions where speed matters and fees need to stay low) while being less suited for others (very large transactions that exceed channel capacity).
Tradeoffs to Consider
IBEX solves real problems, but merchants should understand what they're getting:
The upside: Near-instant settlement, dramatically lower fees than traditional Bitcoin transactions, no chargebacks, and access to customers who prefer paying with Bitcoin. For businesses with international customers, Lightning payments bypass the friction and fees of cross-border card transactions.
The considerations: You're trusting IBEX's infrastructure to remain reliable and secure. Bitcoin price volatility remains a factor unless you convert to fiat immediately. Customer adoption of Lightning, while growing, is still limited compared to card payments. And integrating any new payment method involves operational overhead.
IBEX's positioning is interesting: they're building toward what they describe as "interoperable settlement across fiat, stablecoins, and cryptocurrency." That ambition suggests they see Lightning not just as a Bitcoin payment method but as infrastructure for broader financial rails.
Is It Right for Your Business?
The honest answer depends on your customer base and appetite for early adoption. If you serve customers who actively want to pay with Bitcoin, or operate in markets where card infrastructure is expensive or unreliable, Lightning payments through a service like IBEX can be genuinely useful.
For most mainstream businesses in developed markets, Lightning payments are currently a nice-to-have rather than essential. But the infrastructure has matured considerably since 2021, and the operational burden of accepting Lightning through a managed service is now minimal.
The companies building this infrastructure are betting that Lightning will become standard payment rails. Whether that bet pays off depends on factors beyond any single provider's control. But if you want to accept Lightning payments today without running your own node, IBEX represents one of the more battle-tested options available.