Utexo, a Bitcoin-native execution and settlement layer for stablecoin payments, announced today 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, Flow Traders, Plan B, Gate Ventures, and Sats Ventures. Strategic angels include operators from Ledger, Hyperion, BTC Turk, Echo, Legion, and SOLV.
The funding will accelerate Utexo's mission to make Bitcoin-native stablecoin settlement practical, predictable, and easy to integrate. Historically, the Lightning Network and RGB have offered powerful capabilities on Bitcoin but remained prohibitively complex for production environments. Utexo abstracts that complexity by providing a single API layer, enabling payment operators to route USDT settlement directly over Bitcoin-native rails without managing underlying technical trade-offs or rewriting user experiences.
“Bitcoin has always been central to Tether’s long-term vision for USDT,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. “Market cycles come and go, but the need for open and resilient settlement infrastructure remains constant. What has been missing is production-ready infrastructure that makes Bitcoin-native stablecoin settlement viable at scale. Utexo provides that layer.”
Utexo’s infrastructure enables native USDT settlement directly on Bitcoin, including the first-ever availability of USDT over the Lightning Network. Fees 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, while 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.”
Viktor Ihnatiuk, Co-founder of Utexo, added: “For the first time, wallets will be able to offer their users free USDT transactions. Utexo provides a built-in growth flywheel: wallets grow their user base, while USDT bootstraps adoption on Bitcoin. The divorce between the two most important digital assets is finally over. After more than a decade, we're bringing USDT back home.”
Utexo has designed its infrastructure offerings specifically 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 attempting to bootstrap new L2 solutions, Utexo focuses on routing existing USDT flows onto Bitcoin as infrastructure catches up with long-standing operational needs.
For more information on Utexo’s Bitcoin-native USDT settlement infrastructure and upcoming integrations, visit https://utexo.com/ and follow on X: https://x.com/utexocom.
