Tether Supports projects. Utexo Plans to support privacy. USDT Direct exchange between transfers, native Bitcoin, and USDT, as well as loans secured with native Bitcoin, while ensuring that most transaction data does not appear on the public Bitcoin ledger.
USDT, the world's largest stablecoin, is expected to return to the Bitcoin network this month through the infrastructure developed by Utexo, a project supported by Tether.
Utexo plans to support direct exchanges between private USDT, native Bitcoin, and USDT, as well as loans secured with native Bitcoin. At the same time, most transaction data will be kept outside of the public Bitcoin ledger.
Utexo will blacklist UTXO that are associated with sanctioned or illegal activities, rather than freezing the addresses; after its initial launch, it also plans to extend USDT to the Bitcoin Lightning Network.
Tether The CEO, Paolo Ardoino, declared last week on X: “It’s going home.” He referred to the company’s stablecoin, USDT, returning to the Bitcoin network.
USDT is the largest stablecoin in the world by market capitalization, with a market value of nearly $190 billion. It was first created in 2014 based on the Omi protocol on Bitcoin, and later Ethereum, as well as Tron, became its main issuance networks.
Today, USDT will return to this world's oldest blockchain through the infrastructure project Utexo supported by Tether. It is expected that Utexo will begin issuing this world's largest stablecoin on the Bitcoin network this month.
Utexo was established in 2025 and raised $7.5 million in funding earlier this year. Utexo, one of the co-founders, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message that the company has obtained a commercial license to issue USDT on Bitcoin and is able to use the trademark for this stablecoin, allowing it to be offered to exchanges, wallets, and payment service providers.
In a recent interview with CoinDesk, Ihnatiuk stated: " Tether has always been a Bitcoin company. For them, Bitcoin, just like gold, is a haven of stability. This is also the reason why Tether continues to buy BTC and supports the Bitcoin community."
According to the data from Bitcoin Treasuries, as of mid-August this year, Tether held approximately 100,000 BTC, worth 8.4 billion US dollars.
Ihnatiuk also states: 'I cannot speak directly on behalf of Tether, but from my personal observations, Bitcoin is a very important priority for them. Our job is to ensure that USDT is as accessible on Bitcoin as it is elsewhere.'
Changes in privacy policies
Utexo plans to achieve this goal by building a more secure architecture for this stablecoin than its versions on Ethereum or Tron.
Its RGB protocol will employ client-side verification, ensuring that most of the transaction data does not enter the public Bitcoin ledger, while ownership is anchored to unspent transaction outputs ( UTXO ). UTXO refers to the remaining Bitcoin fragments after a transaction, similar to the change given after making a cash purchase.
Networks such as Ethereum and Polkadot rely on an account model that shares balance updates and transaction information on the public ledger; however, the architecture of Utexo adopts a different approach. The client verification of RGB is combined with Bitcoin’s UTXO model, which means that transaction details are completely kept in a off-chain environment between the two parties involved in the transaction, while the Bitcoin ledger is only used to prove ownership through cryptographic means.
Utexo will issue USDT on Bitcoin, and through API, SDK and cloud services, it will provide infrastructure for exchanges, wallet service providers, and payment companies to enable them to carry out related services.
According to Utexo, there are mainly three use cases: private USDT transfers; direct exchange between native BTC and USDT without the need to go through exchanges; and lending, where borrowers can use native Bitcoin as collateral without having to encapsulate it onto another blockchain like with tokens such as WBTC.
However, this privacy usage scenario comes with an important limitation.
RGB Assets are ultimately attached to Bitcoin UTXO. This means that Utexo technically cannot freeze a certain UTXO in the same way that Tether can freeze Ethereum addresses. On the contrary, Utexo will maintain a blacklist of UTXO associated with sanctioned or illegal activities and distribute this information to exchanges and other service providers.
Ihnatiuk said, "This UTXO will only become irredeemable, so no one will be able to send it back to the bridging tool or minting tool, nor will it be possible to extract it to Ethereum or Polkadot."
Once the issuance of USDT on Bitcoin is officially launched next month, the next step for Utexo will be to expand to Lightning Network – a second-layer network designed to make Bitcoin payments faster and cheaper.
One of its goals may be to make USDT a token used on the Lightning Network for paying transaction fees (or gas), similar to the usage of the second-largest stablecoin, USDC, on Arc. Arc is a new blockchain network developed by USDC, the issuer Circle.
