Utexo, a startup building Bitcoin-native stablecoin settlement infrastructure, announced the raise of a $7.5 million seed round co-led by Tether, Big Brain Holdings, and Portal Ventures, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Maven11 Capital, Fulgur Ventures, Alchemy VC, Ethereal Ventures, Auros Ventures, Arcanum Capital, Paper Ventures, Axia8, FlowTraders, Plan B, Gate Ventures, Sats Ventures, and strategic angels including operators from Ledger, Hyperion, BTC Turk, Echo, Legion, and SOLV.
The funding will support Utexo's mission to enable native USDT settlement directly over Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, addressing the complexity that has historically prevented stablecoin transactions from using Bitcoin's rails. Utexo provides a single API layer that abstracts the technical challenges of Lightning Network and RGB, allowing payment operators to route USDT settlement without managing underlying trade-offs or changing workflows.
“Bitcoin has always been central to Tether’s long-term vision for USDT,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. “What has been missing is production-ready infrastructure that makes Bitcoin-native stablecoin settlement viable at scale. Utexo provides that layer. By enabling native USDT settlement directly over Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, with predictable costs and seamless integration, it strengthens Bitcoin’s position as a global settlement rail for real-world dollar transactions.”
Utexo's infrastructure offers the first-ever availability of USDT over the Lightning Network, with fees that are fixed, predictable, and known in advance for every transaction, regardless of network conditions. Settlement costs are paid in USDT and do not fluctuate with congestion or blockspace demand. Transactions settle atomically and privately, anchored to Bitcoin’s security model and completed in under one second. Unlike public transaction graphs on other networks, Utexo prioritizes private execution with only encrypted transactions written on-chain, preventing disclosure of counterparties’ payment flows and wallet addresses.
“We built Utexo so that USDT could move on Bitcoin the way money is supposed to move: instantly, privately, with no surprises on costs,” said Chris Hutchinson, Co-founder of Utexo. “Utexo combines Bitcoin, Lightning, and RGB into a usable payment stack. Our partners integrate our API once and can route USDT natively on the most resilient open network ever built, with full control over their cost structure.”
For the first time, wallets will be able to offer users free USDT transactions, said Viktor Ihnatiuk, Co-founder of Utexo. “Utexo provides a built-in growth flywheel: wallets grow their user base, while USDT bootstraps adoption on Bitcoin. After more than a decade, we're bringing USDT back home.”
Utexo has designed its infrastructure for payment service providers, exchanges, wallets, high-frequency trading firms, and platforms already moving large volumes of USDT for merchant settlement, payouts, cross-border transfers, and global commerce. Rather than bootstrapping new L2 solutions, Utexo's strategy focuses on routing existing USDT flows onto Bitcoin as infrastructure catches up with operational needs.
For more information, visit utexo.com and follow on X at https://x.com/utexocom.
