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, Fulgur Ventures, and others. The funding will support the launch of its platform that enables native USDT settlements directly on Bitcoin, including the first-ever availability of USDT over the Lightning Network.
Historically, Lightning Network and RGB have offered powerful capabilities on Bitcoin but remained complex to deploy in production. Utexo abstracts that complexity through a single API layer, allowing payment operators to route USDT settlement over Bitcoin-native rails without managing underlying technical trade-offs or changing existing workflows. The infrastructure provides fixed, predictable fees known in advance for every transaction, regardless of network conditions, and settlement costs are paid in USDT, avoiding fluctuations with congestion or blockspace demand.
“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.” The platform prioritizes private execution, with only encrypted transactions written on-chain, preventing disclosure of counterparties’ payment flows and wallet addresses.
Utexo’s infrastructure is designed for payment service providers, exchanges, wallets, high-frequency trading firms, and platforms moving large volumes of USDT for merchant settlement, payouts, cross-border transfers, and global commerce. “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.
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. After more than a decade, we're bringing USDT back home.”
The funding round also includes strategic angels from Ledger, Hyperion, BTC Turk, Echo, Legion, and SOLV. Utexo’s go-to-market strategy focuses on routing existing USDT flows onto Bitcoin, rather than bootstrapping new L2 solutions. With stablecoins increasingly replacing legacy payment rails worldwide, Utexo makes it possible for Bitcoin to function as a viable settlement layer for dollar-denominated payments. For more information, visit utexo.com and follow on X at x.com/utexocom.
