Lightning payouts at Bitcoin mining pools: which pools pay over Lightning, minimums, fees and what breaks

POOL BTC is an independent comparison site. We do not run a pool and we do not pay anyone. This page compares what other pools publish.

Short version

• Three pools document Lightning payouts: Braiins Pool, Ocean and F2Pool. At F2Pool it only covers manual withdrawals below the regular threshold.
• Braiins Pool pays over Lightning from 1 sat, up to 0.005 BTC per transaction, with no fee (academy.braiins.com, 2026-09-15). Its on chain payout starts at 0.0002 BTC.
• Ocean pays over Lightning through BOLT12 before its on chain threshold of 0.01048576 BTC is reached (ocean.xyz, 2026-09-15).
• F2Pool lets you withdraw from 0.0005 BTC over Lightning, a tenth of its 0.005 BTC default. You pay a 0.000001 BTC fee.
• Lightning removes the dust problem of many small on chain payouts. In exchange you take on a wallet that must be online, have inbound capacity and support the pool's payout format.
• A farm that clears the on chain threshold every day gains little from Lightning, and the 0.005 BTC cap at Braiins Pool gets in the way.

Which mining pools pay out over Lightning?

Two pools document regular Lightning payouts: Braiins Pool and Ocean. F2Pool allows Lightning only for manual withdrawals below its threshold. NiceHash, a hashrate marketplace rather than a pool, allows Lightning withdrawals from its own wallet. AntPool, ViaBTC, Foundry USA, Luxor and EMCD document no Lightning payouts as of 2026-09-15.

Sources: academy.braiins.com/braiins-pool/rewards-and-payouts, ocean.xyz and ocean.xyz/docs/lightning, f2pool.zendesk.com (manual withdrawal threshold article), the NiceHash blog post on Lightning payouts, kryptex.com/en/fees, antpoolsupport-hc.zendesk.com, support.viabtc.com, pool-faq.foundrydigital.com, docs.luxor.tech, help.emcd.io.

NiceHash sources disagree: a 2020 announcement named a 0.15 BTC withdrawal limit, while the current post describes a 10 satoshi minimum. We use the current version and keep the older figure on record as outdated.

Ocean's 0.01048576 BTC on chain threshold is now confirmed on ocean.xyz itself: "the threshold is 0.01048576 BTC or 1,048,576 sats" (checked 2026-09-15).

How much lower is the Lightning minimum than the on chain threshold?

At Braiins Pool the Lightning minimum is 1 sat against 0.0002 BTC on chain. At F2Pool the Lightning manual withdrawal starts at 0.0005 BTC against a 0.005 BTC default, ten times lower. At Ocean, Lightning pays before the 0.01048576 BTC on chain threshold. For a small miner this is the difference between days and months of waiting.

How long you wait for the on chain threshold depends on your hashrate. Put your machine into the mining calculator to get daily BTC, then divide the threshold by it. Our breakdown of pool fee deductions explains what else comes off a payout.

Who pays the fee on a Lightning payout?

It depends on the pool. Braiins Pool documents Lightning payouts with no fee. F2Pool charges the user 0.000001 BTC per manual withdrawal. NiceHash is free over a direct channel and charges a dynamic routing fee without one. Kryptex App takes 2%. Ocean documents no separate fee for the Lightning payment itself.

The fee at the pool is only half of the picture. The arithmetic on the published numbers:

1. Braiins Pool on chain below 0.005 BTC costs 0.0001 BTC per payout. On a 0.001 BTC payout that is 10%. On the 0.0002 BTC minimum it is 50%. Over Lightning the same payout costs nothing at the pool.
2. F2Pool's Lightning fee of 0.000001 BTC on the 0.0005 BTC minimum is 0.2% of the withdrawal.
3. At Kryptex App, Lightning (2%) and on chain (0.00003 BTC flat) cost the same at 0.0015 BTC. Below that, Lightning is cheaper. Above it, on chain is cheaper.

On the wallet side there are still no numbers to quote. Phoenix charges the on chain mining fee plus a one time payment for new inbound liquidity when your first payment arrives, but the source does not publish a current satoshi figure for September 2026 (acinq.co/blog/phoenix-splicing-update, checked 2026-09-15). Zeus describes two routes: channels through its Olympus LSP open as a payment arrives, with nothing paid up front, or you buy an inbound channel ahead of time for two weeks to twelve months. The source does not publish the price (zeusln.com/tech, checked 2026-09-15).

What does a pool need from your wallet: BOLT11, BOLT12, LNURL or a Lightning address?

A pool that pays you repeatedly needs a destination it can reuse. A BOLT11 invoice is single use and expires, so it does not suit automatic payouts. BOLT12 offers are reusable, and Ocean uses them. Braiins Pool asks for a Lightning address on regular payouts. Neither pool accepts LNURL for payouts.

Sources: academy.braiins.com/braiins-pool/rewards-and-payouts, ocean.xyz/docs/intro-to-lightning, zeusln.com/blog/new-release-zeus-v0-9-2, bluewallet.io/docs (all checked 2026-09-15).

Custodial or self custody Lightning wallet for pool payouts?

A custodial Lightning wallet is the easiest to set up and always online, but someone else holds the coins, so you are back to exchange style risk. A self custody wallet keeps the keys with you but has to manage channels and inbound liquidity. For small, frequent payouts many miners start custodial and sweep out regularly.

Zeus runs an embedded Lightning node on the phone (LDK or LND) and can control a remote node. Phoenix manages channels itself and stays self custodial. BlueWallet has Lightning built in through LNDHub. Sparrow has no native Lightning. Electrum's Lightning status we have not verified.

The general tradeoff between the two models is covered in custodial or self custody for mining payouts, and the wallet side of payouts in a wallet for mining payouts.

What breaks with Lightning payouts?

Lightning payouts fail for reasons on chain payouts never have: the receiving wallet is offline, has no inbound capacity, cannot route the amount, or does not support the pool's payout format. Per transaction caps split large balances. And Lightning software itself has bugs, as the Core Lightning emergency update in August 2026 showed.

Typical failures, in the order people run into them:

1. Wrong format. The wallet only makes BOLT11 invoices and the pool needs a BOLT12 offer or a Lightning address. The payout simply never goes out.
2. No inbound liquidity. A fresh self custody wallet has no channel yet. The first payment either opens one (and costs a fee) or fails.
3. Offline receiver. The two pools handle this differently. Ocean retries the Lightning payment every block until the amount owed reaches the 0.01048576 BTC on chain threshold, then pays on chain. Braiins Pool gives each invoice an expiry (24 hours recommended, 1 to 2 hours minimum): if the wallet does not claim the payment, the money returns to your balance, and after three attempts the payout is marked failed.
4. Routing failure. The payment finds no path of sufficient capacity. This is why NiceHash separates direct channel and routed withdrawals.
5. Per transaction cap. Braiins Pool allows at most 0.005 BTC (500,000 sat) per Lightning transaction, and anything above the cap goes out on chain for free.
6. Software bugs. On 2026-08-27 Core Lightning developers told node operators to install an upcoming security release and suggested taking nodes offline, with details under a 14 day embargo. If you run your own node, follow your implementation's release notes.

How do you account for many small Lightning payouts for tax?

Tax treatment of mining income depends on your country, and Lightning does not change what the income is. It does change the volume: a daily or even more frequent payout creates many small records. Export the payout history from the pool, keep the BTC price at each receipt, and reconcile it with your wallet history.

What we can say without guessing:

1. The pool dashboard is the primary record of how much was credited and when. None of the three pools publishes how long it keeps payout history: not Braiins Pool, not Ocean, not F2Pool. Braiins Pool does let you export payout, reward and activity history as CSV or JSON, and F2Pool shows TXIDs under Payout Records. Since the retention depth is unknown, export monthly.
2. A Lightning wallet history shows payment hashes, not on chain transaction IDs. Keep both files, because a block explorer cannot confirm a Lightning payment later.
3. Whether each small payout is taxable on receipt and how to value it is a question for a local tax adviser.

When is Lightning not worth it?

Lightning adds little if your farm clears the on chain threshold every day and the pool pays on chain without a fee. At F2Pool, payouts above 0.005 BTC carry no transaction fee. At Braiins Pool, on chain payouts from 0.005 BTC are free. Larger balances also hit the 0.005 BTC Lightning cap, which means several transactions.

Lightning makes sense when:

• your hashrate needs weeks or months to reach the on chain threshold (check with the calculator);
• the pool charges a flat on chain fee that eats a large share of a small payout;
• you want to avoid collecting dozens of tiny UTXOs that cost money to consolidate later.

Lightning is usually not needed when:

• daily earnings are above the fee free on chain level of your pool;
• the coins go to cold storage anyway, since moving them from Lightning to a hardware wallet is one more on chain transaction;
• your accounting requires on chain transaction IDs for every receipt.

How do you check that a Lightning payout actually arrived?

Compare three records: the pool's payout history, the wallet's incoming payments, and the payment hash or preimage if the wallet shows it. An on chain explorer will not help, because Lightning payments do not appear on chain. Amounts should match to the sat, minus any fee the pool documents.

1. In the pool dashboard, find the payout line with amount, time and status. A failed status means the coins are still on your pool balance.
2. In the wallet, find the incoming payment with the same amount and a close timestamp.
3. Compare the preimage where you have one. The Braiins Pool Payouts API returns an `invoice` field with the invoice and a `preimage` field with the payment preimage, though preimage can be empty on records that are not confirmed yet. Ocean publishes no dashboard or API payout history with those fields.
4. Check the pool balance dropped by the same amount.
5. For the first switch to Lightning, wait for one small payout to go through before you stop watching.

FAQ

Can I get Lightning payouts at F2Pool automatically?

According to F2Pool's documentation checked on 2026-09-11, Lightning applies to manual withdrawals when your balance is below the regular threshold, from 0.0005 BTC with a 0.000001 BTC fee. The standard automatic payout at 0.005 BTC goes on chain without a transaction fee.

Is there a maximum Lightning payout?

Braiins Pool caps a payout at 0.005 BTC (500,000 sat) per transaction, and anything above that goes out on chain for free. Kryptex App caps Lightning withdrawals at 0.005 BTC too. For Ocean the source does not publish a numeric per transaction cap: it only says not to set an amount in advance, so the pool can pay varying amounts.

Can I switch between Lightning and on chain at the same pool?

Yes, both pools let you change the payout method in settings. At Braiins Pool the payout rule is set per financial account under Funds: network, wallet or Lightning address, and a trigger by time or by amount. Neither Braiins Pool nor Ocean publishes a hold period after you change the destination. Braiins Pool does offer a separate Payout setup lock. Ocean notes separately that if you change your address or stop mining, a remaining balance from 0.00065536 BTC is paid at the pool's discretion "if practicable", and that the policy can change.

Can the pool pay straight into an exchange over Lightning?

Only if the exchange accepts Lightning deposits in the format the pool sends. We did not verify exchange support. Test with the smallest payout first.

What the sources do not publish

• How long Braiins Pool, Ocean and F2Pool keep payout history.
• Ocean's maximum Lightning payout per transaction and any separate fee for the Lightning payment.
• Whether Ocean shows a payment hash or preimage in payout history.
• Current September 2026 channel opening and inbound liquidity costs in Phoenix and Zeus.
• Whether Phoenix can receive a payment while the app is fully closed.
• Any hold period when changing the payout method at Braiins Pool or Ocean.