Lightning Labs has made Wavelength available to everyone on the Bitcoin mainnet, allowing AI agents to send and receive bitcoin without users running a Lightning node or managing payment channels.
The wallet has an initial account limit of 300,000 satoshis and remains in alpha. Developers can install the client, create a wallet and use real bitcoin, with each Lightning payment subject to a 0.25% service fee for sending and receiving, in addition to routing charges.
The public launch was announced on 23 October, following July’s alpha release. At that stage, signet and testnet access was open to all, but mainnet use was invitation-only.
Michael Levin of Lightning Labs said agents could pay for individual API calls, data feeds and services provided by other agents. The company said transactions could take place without a person approving every payment.
Wavelength uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing AI systems to call wallet functions such as sending, receiving, checking balances and reviewing activity. Its installation material supports coding agents including Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot and Gemini CLI.
The wallet also supports L402, a system in which an agent requests a paid resource, receives a Lightning invoice and gains access after payment without needing an existing account or separately issued API key. Developers can use the same system to sell their own services, meaning an agent can both pay for another service and receive bitcoin for an endpoint.
Wallet creation and unlocking remain outside the agent channel, keeping seed phrases and passwords away from the model. The October release also includes receive-only credentials, which cannot sign transactions, recover funds or administer the wallet. A long-running wallet process can be accessed by host applications through gRPC and REST interfaces.
Wavelength holds users’ keys, tracks balances and signs payments, while a managed operator coordinates settlement through an Ark-like system. Loop provides the Lightning liquidity used by the operator. Receiving a Lightning payment involves an atomic swap into Ark, while sending reverses that process by moving funds from the wallet’s Ark balance to pay a Lightning invoice.
The wallet uses standard BOLT 11 invoices, allowing payments to and from existing Lightning applications. Processing can take seconds or minutes depending on server liquidity and operator availability, while expired payments or timed-out swaps can be recovered.
Withdrawals can be cooperative, requiring the operator’s co-signature, or unilateral, using previously signed transactions in an emergency. Unilateral exits take longer and cost more because Bitcoin timelocks must expire and several on-chain transactions may be required. Users may also need to fund a wallet to cover network fees.
Each virtual transaction output is limited to 50,000 satoshis. Deposits and withdrawals carry separate charges, with estimated costs shown before payment, while unilateral exits require users to pay Bitcoin network fees.
Stablecoin support is planned through Taproot Assets. Levin described the product as “still an alpha” and asked developers to report problems and missing features.
Other agent-payment tools include Coinbase’s Agentic Wallets, introduced in February with developer-set transaction limits and session spending caps, and Stripe’s x402 payments on Base, which support USDC and settle merchants’ funds in fiat. Stripe’s stablecoin service is available to US businesses except those in New York, subject to access review. Block has also added Lightning support to x402 since joining the x402 Foundation in September.
