LND Channel Rebalancing Strategies -- Fix Imbalanced Channels

Channels become imbalanced when too much liquidity sits on one side. Rebalancing moves sats back toward center so you can both send and receive.

Check Channel Balance

lncli listchannels | jq '.channels[] | {alias: .remote_alias, local: .local_balance, remote: .remote_balance}'

Option 1: Circular Rebalance with bos

# Install balance-of-satoshis
npm i -g balanceofsatoshis

# Rebalance: move 100k sats from channel A toward channel B
bos rebalance --amount 100000 --in PUBKEY_A --out PUBKEY_B --max-fee-rate 500

Option 2: lncli payinvoice Loop

# Create invoice on your node, pay it back through a specific route
# Forces liquidity to shift via circular payment

Option 3: Loop Out (submarine swap)

# Move local liquidity to on-chain, freeing inbound space
loop out --amt 500000 --addr YOUR_ONCHAIN_ADDR

Option 4: Keysend Push

# Push sats to peer directly (peer must support keysend)
lncli sendpayment --keysend --dest PEER_PUBKEY --amt 50000

Fee Strategy for Rebalancing

Set --max-fee-rate to limit what you pay. Start at 200 ppm, increase if no route found. High rebalancing fees eat into routing revenue — only rebalance if the channel will earn more than the rebalance cost.

Automate with charge-lnd

# charge-lnd adjusts fees dynamically based on channel balance
# Channels naturally rebalance through organic traffic when fees are set correctly
pip install charge-lnd
charge-lnd -c /path/to/charge.config