Morgan Stanley Talks With Utexo About USDT on Bitcoin
Utexo is discussing with Morgan Stanley how USDT can be rolled out through Bitcoin and Lightning, with attention also on European adoption under MiCA.
Key Takeaways
- Utexo spoke with Morgan Stanley about USDT on Bitcoin and about adoption in Europe and worldwide.
- Paolo Ardoino says USDT is back “home” on Bitcoin, where Tether launched the stablecoin in 2014.
- Utexo is building infrastructure for USDT on Bitcoin through Lightning and RGB, but a release date is still unknown.
Utexo has spoken with Morgan Stanley about USDT on Bitcoin, while Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is once again linking the stablecoin project to Bitcoin. According to Utexo, the conversation in Washington also covered adoption in Europe and worldwide. The move fits into a broader shift in which major players are once again looking at Bitcoin as a base for payments and asset issuance.
USDT Returns to Bitcoin
Ardoino shared the post on X and wrote that USDT is coming “home” to Bitcoin, the network where the stablecoin was first launched in 2014. Tether issued USDT at the time through the Omni Layer, a protocol built on top of Bitcoin. Later, most of the supply moved to Ethereum and Tron, and in 2023 Tether stopped supporting the Omni version.
The renewed focus on Bitcoin is not just symbolic. Utexo is building the infrastructure behind USDT on Bitcoin and lets wallets, crypto exchanges, and custodians move the stablecoin through the Lightning Network. The company uses RGB for this, a protocol that issues assets on Bitcoin while keeping transaction data off-chain.
What Utexo Is Doing Technically
According to the RGB Protocol Association, Utexo raised $7.5 million (€6.6 million) in a seed round with Tether, Big Brain Holdings, Portal Ventures, and Franklin Templeton. In August, Utexo added its RGB Lightning module to Tether’s Wallet Development Kit, a toolkit for developers building self-custody wallets. Utexo was founded by Viktor Ihnatiuk, who previously led the software company Boosty Labs.
The technical setup matters because Bitcoin and Lightning together are supposed to provide speed and scalability without all the data needing to sit directly on the mainchain. For users, that could mean USDT on Bitcoin feels more like a native payment layer than like a separate token that mainly runs elsewhere.
Why This Matters for Europe
For European crypto users, the key point is that Utexo also spoke with Morgan Stanley about adoption in Europe, according to Ihnatiuk. At the same time, the rollout is still limited. Utexo names UniSat, a wallet popular with Bitcoin Ordinals and tokens, as the next launch partner, but a release date is still not known.
That is especially interesting against the backdrop of MiCA. Tether previously rejected a bank deposit rule in those EU frameworks, which has limited USDT’s reach in the bloc. If USDT on Bitcoin becomes more widely available, it could become a test of demand for a Bitcoin-native stablecoin, especially outside the current European restrictions.
