Overview
- Utexo, a Tether‑backed startup that raised $7.5 million and holds a commercial license from Tether, plans to begin issuing USDT on Bitcoin mainnet in October 2026.
- The system uses the RGB protocol with Bitcoin’s UTXO model so most transaction details are kept off‑chain and validated by clients rather than recorded publicly.
- Utexo says its initial products will be private USDT transfers, atomic BTC–USDT swaps that avoid centralized exchanges, and loans backed by native bitcoin without wrapping BTC.
- For compliance, Utexo proposes blacklisting specific UTXOs tied to illicit or sanctioned activity so those outputs become unusable rather than freezing whole addresses.
- Demand appears strong on paper—more than 450 businesses have expressed interest—but no formal exchange or institutional integrations have been confirmed and Lightning Network support is planned for a later phase.