Tether renews push to bring USDT back to Bitcoin

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino renewed the company’s plan to expand USDT use on Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, repeating an initiative first announced in January 2025. Ardoino described the stablecoin as “coming home.”

USDT was first issued on Bitcoin using the Omni Layer protocol. Over time most activity moved to other blockchains such as Ethereum and Tron because they offered lower fees and faster transfers. Tether stopped offering direct support for the older Omni-based tokens.

In January 2025 Tether said it would enable transfers on Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. Lightning settles payments off-chain to speed transactions and reduce fees, while allowing final settlement on Bitcoin’s main chain when needed.

Companies have worked through 2026 to build supporting infrastructure. Utexo, a startup supported by Tether, raised $7.5 million in March to build payment infrastructure intended to let businesses send USDT over Bitcoin. That work uses RGB, a protocol that moves tokens while avoiding publication of every transaction detail on the public blockchain.

Taproot Assets is a separate approach under development to support assets on Bitcoin; it and RGB use different methods to limit on-chain data while enabling token transfers.

Utexo co-founder Viktor Ihnatiuk reported a recent meeting with Morgan Stanley representatives in Washington and said more than 450 businesses, including exchanges, wallets and payment firms, are in Utexo’s pipeline. Morgan Stanley has not confirmed any partnership or public association with Utexo or Tether.

Tether has not published a timetable for customer rollouts. USDT remains the largest stablecoin by market value at about $184 billion. Shifting stablecoin transactions onto Bitcoin would broaden the types of assets transacted and held on the network beyond bitcoin transfers and custody.