Loop

Loop is a service from Lightning Labs for moving bitcoin into and out of the Lightning Network without closing channels. It solves the problem every node operator eventually hits: a channel drained in one direction that is still perfectly good, and would be expensive and slow to close and reopen.

It works through submarine swaps, which trade off-chain funds for on-chain funds atomically. A Loop Out sends value out of your channels to a Bitcoin address, converting outbound liquidity into inbound and refilling your ability to receive. A Loop In does the reverse, pushing on-chain funds into your channels to restore outbound capacity — which also means you can deposit to a Bitcoin address without closing a channel to do it.

The swaps are non-custodial. The protocol is constructed so that either the swap completes or your funds come back to you, without a window in which the service could simply keep them, and Lightning Labs never takes custody of the balance in transit.

AutoLoop can handle this on a schedule rather than on demand, keeping channels balanced according to thresholds you set. Transactions are batched opportunistically to reduce on-chain fees, Loop Ins can use static reusable addresses, and in-flight swaps can be monitored as they progress. On a MyNode, Loop runs its own loopd daemon alongside LND.