Utexo, a Dubai-based startup, will launch Tether’s USDT on Bitcoin on Nov. 28. The token will run on RGB, a protocol that keeps transaction data off the public blockchain. Lightning Network s
Utexo, a Dubai-based startup, will launch Tether’s USDT on Bitcoin on Nov. 28. The token will run on RGB, a protocol that keeps transaction data off the public blockchain. Lightning Network support is planned for Q1 2027.
Utexo is aiming at businesses that want confidential payments settled on Bitcoin. It enters a market where Ethereum and Tron already hold most stablecoin supply. The company has no smart contracts or DeFi to offer, so it must win on privacy and speed.
Utexo opened early access to its USDT Mint product on Oct. 22. Verified operators such as exchanges, wallets and market makers can test minting, confidential transfers and redemption on Bitcoin’s Signet test network.
UniSat is the named launch partner and will support USDT transfers and swaps in its wallet. Utexo says it works with 12 over-the-counter network partners and has 40 more in its pipeline.
USDT began on Bitcoin in 2014 through the Omni protocol. Tether stopped issuing it there in August 2023 and cited declining usage. Fees and competition from faster chains pushed activity elsewhere.
Tether announced plans for USDT on RGB in August 2025, but the launch did not happen. Tether then led Utexo’s $7.5 million seed round in March. Utexo will issue the Bitcoin version through Tether’s USDT0 protocol.
Co-founder and CEO Viktor Ihnatiuk says the idea formed after a conversation with Tether at Bitcoin Prague in 2023. Utexo builds on RGB and Lightning infrastructure from ThunderStack, founded by co-founder Renat Skitsan.
RGB has been in development since 2016. The parties to a transfer validate asset transactions themselves, while cryptographic commitments anchored to Bitcoin secure the system. It is a Bitcoin-native protocol, not a sidechain or rollup.
RGB also works with Lightning, so USDT can move through payment channels without a base-layer transaction for each transfer. Ihnatiuk claims Lightning settles in about 100 milliseconds. Utexo says it can disclose transaction details for compliance and has procedures for law enforcement requests.
Stablecoin supply stood at about $300 billion across 47 blockchains in early to mid-October. Stablecoin Beat put Ethereum at around 48.4% of supply and Tron at 31.5% as of October 19. Ethereum and Tron together control more than 85% of the total.
Tron is the network most relevant to Utexo’s target market. DefiLlama puts its stablecoin supply at about $95.3 billion in mid-October, with USDT making up roughly $93.2 billion. Tron added about $5 billion in supply in Q3, while Ethereum lost about $4.9 billion.
Usage is even more lopsided than supply. Tron processed about 73% of stablecoin transfer volume in Q3. It handled $2.21 trillion in stablecoin settlements in that quarter.
The wider market has also cooled. Total stablecoin supply peaked at $322.4 billion in May and was about $308 billion in August. A new network must draw dollars from a market that has stopped growing.
Ihnatiuk wants at least $1 billion of USDT on Bitcoin within 12 months. His median goal is $5 billion, and his initial goal is $10 billion. Even the minimum equals about 1% of the USDT now on Tron.
He does not plan to copy Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem. In his words, Bitcoin was built for payments. He points to escrow-based exchanges, over-the-counter settlement and lending as realistic uses.
Miners are a second target. They could swap BTC for USDT on Bitcoin directly, without moving funds to centralized exchanges. Ihnatiuk also expects added USDT activity to raise miner fee revenue, though that depends on adoption that has not yet happened.
The main technical risk is the bridge. Utexo Mint locks USDT0 on Arbitrum and mints an equivalent amount on Bitcoin. Redeeming burns the RGB asset and releases the locked funds.
Security therefore depends on the bridge, not on Bitcoin and RGB alone. Bridges have been frequent hacking targets. Oxorio audited Mint, but Utexo has not published the full report.
Privacy has limits as well. USDT is issued by Tether, which can freeze tokens. Tether says it helped freeze $550 million in Iran-linked USDT this year, so confidentiality applies to the public ledger, not to the issuer.
The economics are untested. Tron offers low fees and deep liquidity, and Ethereum offers DeFi. Utexo offers neither, and Lightning stablecoin payments have no track record at this scale.
The Nov. 28 launch will show how many operators move from the Signet test network to live use. The Q1 2027 Lightning release matters more, since fast payments are the core of the pitch. The audit report and early supply figures will show whether $1 billion is reachable.
Bitcoin has hosted USDT before and lost it. This time Tether is an investor, and the technology is built for confidential payments. Utexo still needs to show that businesses will leave networks that work today.
