Utexo, a startup building Bitcoin-native stablecoin settlement infrastructure, has raised $7.5 million in a seed round co-led by Tether, Big Brain Holdings, and Portal Ventures, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Maven11 Capital, and others. The funding will support Utexo's mission to make USDT transactions over Bitcoin and the Lightning Network practical for businesses.
Historically, using Bitcoin for stablecoin payments faced hurdles due to the complexity of Lightning Network and RGB protocols. Utexo abstracts this complexity by offering a single API layer that enables payment operators to route USDT settlement directly over Bitcoin-native rails without managing technical trade-offs or changing existing 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.”
Utexo's infrastructure introduces the first-ever availability of USDT over the Lightning Network, with fixed and predictable fees paid in USDT that do not fluctuate with network congestion. Transactions settle atomically and privately, anchored to Bitcoin’s security model, with completion in under one second. Unlike public transaction graphs, Utexo writes only encrypted transactions on-chain, protecting 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. “Our partners integrate our API once and can route USDT natively on the most resilient open network ever built.”
The company targets payment service providers, exchanges, wallets, high-frequency trading firms, and platforms already handling large USDT volumes for merchant settlement, cross-border transfers, and global commerce. Instead of bootstrapping new L2 solutions, Utexo routes existing USDT flows onto Bitcoin as infrastructure catches up with operational needs.
“For the first time, wallets will be able to offer their users free USDT transactions,” said Viktor Ihnatiuk, Co-founder of Utexo. “After more than a decade, we're bringing USDT back home.”
With stablecoins increasingly replacing legacy payment rails, Utexo positions Bitcoin as a viable settlement layer for dollar-denominated payments. For more information, visit https://utexo.com/ and follow on X https://x.com/utexocom.
