Tether-backed Utexo plans USDT’s return to Bitcoin via RGB

Tether-backed project Utexo is expected to start issuing USDT on Bitcoin this month, according to CoinDesk’s report on the planned rollout. USDT began on Bitcoin in 2014, but Ethereum and later Tron became its primary venues. Utexo co-founder Viktor Ihnatiuk told CoinDesk the project has a commercial license to issue USDT and use its trademark with exchanges, wallets and payment providers.

How will RGB put USDT on Bitcoin?

Utexo plans to use RGB, which relies on client-side validation and Bitcoin’s unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs). Most transaction data would stay between counterparties rather than appear on Bitcoin’s public ledger; Bitcoin would provide cryptographic proof of ownership. Tether’s 2025 announcement of its plan to launch USDT on RGB described the protocol as a way to issue assets natively on Bitcoin.

Utexo says the setup is intended to support private USDT transfers, direct swaps between bitcoin and USDT without routing through an exchange, and loans secured by native bitcoin rather than a wrapped token such as WBTC. Ethereum and Tron use account-based models that record balance updates and transactions on public ledgers. RGB’s design shifts much of that activity off-ledger, though users would depend on compatible wallets and services to access the new rail.

What does UTXO-based enforcement change?

The privacy model also changes how restrictions work. CoinDesk reports that Utexo cannot freeze an RGB asset in the same way Tether can freeze an Ethereum address. Instead, Utexo says it would blacklist UTXOs associated with sanctioned or illicit activity and share that information with exchanges and other providers. Co-founder Ihnatiuk told CoinDesk that blacklisted UTXOs would become unredeemable through a bridge or minting tool. That gives service providers a way to restrict use, but it is a different control mechanism from freezing an address.

What would show that the return is taking hold?

The first signal is whether Utexo begins issuing USDT on Bitcoin on the reported schedule and whether exchanges, wallets and payment providers integrate it. The next is the planned Lightning expansion, which CoinDesk says would follow the initial launch. Until those steps happen, the announcement marks a planned new route alongside USDT’s established Ethereum and Tron venues, rather than a shift in where most USDT is used.