Closing a Lightning channel by force is cheap but slow
A preprint of public channels found forced closes cost a median 925 satoshis, but the party that closed waited a median 2.5 days to reclaim its own balance.
The facts
- According to CryptoSlate, citing Saurabh Kumar's November 12 preprint, 14,435 public force closes in a 2026 cohort cost a median 925 satoshis across both parties.
- The party that started the close waited a median 2.5 days before its own balance could be swept; across the whole study period the median wait was 1.7 days.
- The 2026 cooperative-close median was 197 satoshis, so force closes cost about 4.7 times more at the median.
- The paper counts 973,581 closes from January 2018 through October 31, 2026, including 523,815 force closes. It excludes private cooperative closes and leaves some spending details unclassified.
Case notes · Danny's take
Why it matters
Most people judge an exit by the fee. Here the fee is the small part. The bigger cost is time: your money sits locked while the peer has a window to check you are not cheating. A cheap exit that leaves capital stuck for days is not really cheap if you run a business on that liquidity. Fees are one line on the bill. Access to your funds is the other.
For builders
If you run Lightning nodes or wallets, count the locked-balance wait as part of the cost of a forced close, not just the miner fee. Note the study's limits: it covers public channels only, and the 2.5 days is when funds become sweepable, not when they land in a wallet.
Not financial advice. Do your own investigation.
This story was summarised with AI from CryptoSlate's reporting and checked against our editorial policy. Danny's take reflects his views. Disclaimer.
Danny Walter
Founder of Moon Republic, Volt Terminal and Moon Republic Academy. Author of The Market Is a Crime Scene and After the Applause.