Startup Utexo secured $7.5 million in a seed funding round led by Tether, Big Brain Holdings, and Portal Ventures.
Utexo has raised $7.5M from @tether, @BigBrainVC, and @PortalVentures to bring USDT natively on Bitcoin.
After more than a decade, USDT is finally coming home. pic.twitter.com/Y8vIh0zU4P
— Utexo (@utexocom) March 6, 2026
Participants include Franklin Templeton, Maven11 Capital, Fulgur Ventures, Alchemy VC, Ethereal Ventures, and several other investors.
Utexo is developing a solution to enable native stablecoin USDT settlements on the Bitcoin blockchain. The project offers proprietary channels in the Lightning Network for transactions in the “stablecoin” with fixed fees.
According to the developers, transfers are processed atomically and confidentially, adhering to Bitcoin’s security model and completing in less than a second. To prevent the disclosure of data on flows, counterparties, and wallets, only encrypted transaction information is recorded on the public blockchain.
“Bitcoin has always been central to the company’s long-term strategy regarding USDT. Market cycles come and go, but the need for open and resilient settlement infrastructure remains constant,” noted Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
In his view, Utexo provides a viable scalable solution “with predictable costs and seamless integration.” He emphasized the strengthening of the first cryptocurrency’s network as a global settlement system for transferring value worldwide.
“Utexo provides a built-in growth mechanism: wallets expand the user base, and USDT facilitates Bitcoin adoption. The gap between the two most important digital assets is finally closed,” stated Utexo co-founder Viktor Ignatyuk.
Back in 2025, Tether’s net profit exceeded $10 billion. The company is actively investing its free funds and in February alone became a strategic investor in the developer of the interoperability protocol LayerZero Labs, the operator of the Hyperliquid application Dreamcash, and also acquired a stake in the online marketplace Whop.
