Liquid Federation Quarterly Update - Q1 2026

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Q1 2026 was a quarter of firsts for the Liquid Network. Post-quantum signatures went live on mainnet. A hardware wallet sent Lightning payments from cold storage (yes, really). The Federation grew to 87 members. And the network processed more transactions in three months than it did in all of 2024. Pull up a chair.<br>Liquid by the Numbers<br>The growth chart keeps doing the thing where it goes up and to the right.<br>Liquid processed 1,163,119 transactions in Q1 2026. That's nearly 5x the same quarter last year (233,670 in Q1 2025) and a 72% jump over Q4 2025's already-record 675,157. To put that in perspective: Q1 2026 alone accounted for 68% of Liquid's entire 2025 transaction volume. The network has now posted 15 consecutive months of growth , with no sign of slowing down.<br>Monthly breakdown:<br>January: 317,296 transactions<br>February: 367,143 transactions<br>March: 478,680 transactions — a new all-time monthly high that nearly doubled December 2025's previous record of 242,623<br>Peak single-day volume hit 20,798 transactions on February 5. For the curious: that's one transaction roughly every four seconds, all day.<br>Peg activity stayed healthy. Q1 saw 14,063 peg-ins totaling 1,252 BTC flowing onto the network and 1,201 peg-outs totaling 1,144 BTC heading back to mainnet, a net inflow of +108 BTC. The network also recorded 18,857 new asset issuances across the quarter.<br>What's driving all this? A lot of it is DePix. The BRL-denominated stablecoin on Liquid now accounts for roughly half of the network's transaction volume, powering remittance and merchant payment flows across Brazil and bringing Liquid directly into everyday commerce. Beyond DePix, the forces that powered Q4's record numbers keep accelerating: Boltz as the connective tissue between Bitcoin layers, with swap volume climbing alongside Lightning and Liquid adoption; SideSwap's growing app integrations pulling stablecoin activity onto the network; Changelly's full LBTC swap support giving traders another on-ramp; and the Breez SDK's expanding partner base (75+ apps and counting) generating Liquid-adjacent transaction volume.<br>Here's one more stat to sit with: Liquid processed 501,358 transactions in all of 2024. At the current pace, 2026 is on track to surpass that in a single month.<br>Post-Quantum Signatures Hit Production<br>In Q1, Liquid became the first production Bitcoin sidechain to verify post-quantum signatures.<br>Blockstream Research deployed SHRINCS, a compact hash-based post-quantum signature scheme, as a Simplicity smart contract on Liquid mainnet. Two production transactions proved the system works: one using a stateful signature and one using the stateless fallback. No consensus changes required. No fork needed. Just Simplicity doing what it was designed to do. (And in a nod to cypherpunk tradition, the team filled the extra transaction space with the Bitcoin whitepaper.)<br>Users can now protect their Liquid Bitcoin and issued assets against future quantum computer attacks.@blksresearch has deployed post-quantum signature verification on the @Liquid_BTC Network using Simplicity - a first on a production Bitcoin sidechain.

Opt-in quantum… pic.twitter.com/6bF80fgWBq<br>— Blockstream (@Blockstream) March 3, 2026

The open-source verifier is on GitHub for any wallet developer to integrate. LBTC, stablecoins, and tokenized securities on Liquid can all opt into quantum-resistant protection today. If you want the full technical deep dive, read the breakdown here.<br>Visit blockstream.com/quantum for a detailed overview of the latest in post-quantum Bitcoin development.<br>Federation Growth<br>In January, the Liquid Federation welcomed seven new members: Cowbolt, Eulen, illuminodes, Mooze, OrderMoon, Sorted Wallet, and SOUSTA. That brings the total to 87 members across six continents. The new cohort spans self-custody wallets, cross-border remittances, Bitcoin infrastructure, and real estate tokenization. The Federation keeps getting more global and more diverse.<br>Protocol upgrades previewed at the end of 2025 remain on track: multi-asset fee payments, 0-conf capabilities, and the planned hard fork modifying the 21M issuance limit. More details to come as we move through 2026.<br>Want to get involved?<br>Join the Liquid Community Telegram<br>Follow @Liquid_BTC on X<br>Attend Simplicity Office Hours every Tuesday at 8 AM PST<br>Blockstream: Three Layers, One Wallet<br>Blockstream shipped the update that makes "Bitcoin's Financial Layer" more than a tagline. The Blockstream app 5.2.0 pairs with Jade to deliver something no other Bitcoin wallet has pulled off: Lightning payments secured by hardware wallet cold storage. You can now receive Lightning payments that settle directly to Jade, or send Lightning invoices funded from cold storage. Every transaction is signed on the device.<br>Withdrawing Lightning sats from @River straight to Blockstream Jade. pic.twitter.com/6iJxXyUO2O<br>— Blockstream Jade (@BlockstreamJade) March 24, 2026

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