“It’s coming home,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino proclaimed on X last week, referring to the return of his company’s stablecoin, $USDT, to the Bitcoin network.
Tether’s $USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin with a market cap of nearly $190 billion, began life on Bitcoin in 2014 on its Omi protocol, before Ethereum and later Tron became its primary venues.
$USDT is now set to return to the world’s oldest blockchain through Tether-backed infrastructure project Utexo, which is expected to begin issuing the world’s largest stablecoin on the Bitcoin network this month.
Utexo, which was founded in 2025 and raised $7.5 million in funding earlier this year, has been granted the commercial license to issue $USDT on Bitcoin, using the stablecoin’s trademark to bring it to exchanges, wallets and payment providers, Utexo co-founder Viktor Ihnatiuk told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.
“Tether has always been a Bitcoin company,” Ihnatiuk told CoinDesk in a recent interview. “Bitcoin for them is a stability haven, along with gold. That’s why Tether kept buying $BTC and supporting the Bitcoin community.”
Tether holds around 100,000 $BTC ($8.4 billion) as of mid-August this year, according to Bitcoin Treasuries.
