Lightspark and Cross River Partner to Power 24/7 Real-Time Fiat Payments Through Bitcoin
Los Angeles, CA – February 18, 2026 – Lightspark, a leader in Bitcoin payments, and Cross River Bank (“Cross River”), a technology infrastructure provider that offers embedded financial solutions, today announced a partnership to support transactions in a 24/7 cycle via the Bitcoin Network and Cross River’s banking core.
Lightspark leverages the Bitcoin Network to enable financial institutions, payment service providers, and businesses to process payments and buy and sell bitcoin. Through this collaboration, Lightspark users will be able to settle transactions 24/7 via faster payment rails, RTP® and FedNow® with Cross River’s subledgers providing real-time record-keeping of all transaction activity and balances. Lightspark will facilitate instant payments across a range of use cases, enabling real-time transfers and greater liquidity across B2B, cross-border, and retail transactions.
“Our work at Cross River is fundamentally about removing friction in financial services,” said Adam Goller, Head of Fintech Banking at Cross River. “By powering round-the-clock fiat settlement through our API-first banking infrastructure and multiple payment rails, we’re helping Lightspark and their customers transact on their terms—instantly, efficiently, and without traditional constraints.”
The collaboration comes amid a drastic surge in digital asset adoption. Stablecoin transaction volume in 2025 alone grew 83% year-over-year, signaling the demand for infrastructure that can support rapid growth. The partnership addresses this need and enables businesses and consumers to transact seamlessly across the Bitcoin Network without traditional processing windows, unlocking faster and more flexible payments.
“Working with Cross River is an important step toward making real-time, always-on payments a reality for businesses and consumers,” said David Marcus, CEO and co-founder of Lightspark. “By combining our Bitcoin-native payments platform with Cross River’s 24/7 fiat settlement and modern payment rails, we’re removing legacy timing constraints and unlocking faster liquidity, global reach, and new use cases across B2B, cross-border, and retail payments.”
Cross River brings deep expertise in the crypto and digital asset space and a proprietary API-based core to the partnership—capabilities built through years of pioneering work with emerging payment technologies. Together, Cross River and Lightspark are advancing the next generation of real-time payment capabilities, increasing settlement speed and liquidity movement, while expanding the reach and utility of Bitcoin.
About Cross River
Cross River provides technology infrastructure powering the future of financial services. Leveraging its proprietary real-time banking core, Cross River delivers innovative and scalable embedded payments, cards, lending, and crypto solutions to millions of consumers and businesses. Cross River is backed by leading investors and serves the world’s most essential fintech and technology companies. Leading the industry, Cross River is reshaping global finance and financial inclusion. Member FDIC. Find out more at www.crossriver.com.
About Lightspark
Lightspark is building open payments for the Internet—modern, always-on payment solutions. With enterprise tools like Grid, Spark, and Node, businesses can send and receive money instantly, securely, and at a fraction of the cost, anytime, anywhere. Follow on X @lightspark
Media Contacts
Cross River
Mackenzie DeLuca
201-808-7000 ext. 778
Lightspark