Liquidity
Which direction money can move through a Lightning channel, and how much of it.
In plain words
A channel's coins sit on two sides. Yours is outbound liquidity — what you can send. Your partner's is inbound — what you can receive. Every payment slides the balance: send, and your outbound shrinks while your inbound grows. A brand-new channel you funded is all outbound; you cannot receive a single satoshi until something flows out. Liquidity is Lightning's real constraint — not speed, not fees — and managing it is the network's daily work.
Why it matters
- Explains the classic surprise: a freshly opened channel that cannot receive yet.
- Routing only works through channels with balance in the right direction.
- Payments destroy no liquidity — it just changes sides.
Not to be confused with
- Liquid — a separate side network for bitcoin. Same word, unrelated thing.
Go deeper
Updated 2026-07-30