Tether is preparing to bring USDT back to Bitcoin, roughly 12 years after its earlier Bitcoin presence, with a different purpose this time: payments and settlement. The company has licensed Utexo, a startup building Bitcoin stablecoin infrastructure, to develop issuance and supporting rails. Utexo raised $7.5 million in seed funding, with Tether participating.
Utexo is building on RGB, a protocol for issuing assets on Bitcoin, and plans to connect it to Lightning. Bitcoin’s base layer is not designed for rapid everyday transfers, while Lightning is built for quicker payments. Utexo says a future integration could enable transfers in less than a second. Its other pitch is privacy: RGB transaction details are encrypted while assets remain anchored to Bitcoin’s security model.
That gives USDT a Bitcoin-native route focused on faster transfers and settlement, rather than simply adding another chain. Ethereum and Tron already have deep liquidity for USDT. So this is a bid to make Bitcoin a settlement rail for USDT, not just another place to trade it. Adoption remains the open question; for now, the announcement sets out infrastructure plans, not transaction volume.