UTEXO – Native USDT Comes Home to Bitcoin
From The Crypto Conversation by Brave New Coin
March 8, 2026 · 29 min
About this episode
Viktor Ihnatiuk discusses the development of UTEXO, a Tether-backed settlement network for USDT and Bitcoin payments.
Viktor Ihnatiuk is the co-founder and CEO of UTEXO, a Tether-backed global settlement network for native USDT and Bitcoin payments, powered by the Lightning Network and the RGB protocol. Viktor joins Andy Pickering to walk through a decade-long journey from Ukrainian fintech to the frontline of Bitcoin infrastructure — and to explain why the world's biggest stablecoin is finally coming back to the chain where it was born. Why you should listen Viktor traces his path from launching Ukraine's first peer-to-peer lending platform and first fintech conference — where he discovered Bitcoin in 2015 — through to building Boosty Labs, a 150-person dev shop that served Coinbase, Bitfinex, Ledger, MetaMask, and WalletConnect. That operation evolved into a venture studio, and a chance meeting with Tether at Bitcoin Prague in 2023 set the stage for what became UTEXO. Viktor explains how he helped push RGB to mainnet, and how a joint venture with Tether was rebranded into UTEXO, which has just closed a $7.5 million seed round co-led by Tether, Big Brain Holdings, and Plan B Ventures. The conversation digs into what UTEXO actually delivers: instant USDT and Bitcoin settlement at zero…
People in this episode
Host: Andy Pickering
Guest: Viktor Ihnatiuk
Topics covered
- Bitcoin
- USDT
- Lightning Network
- fintech
- settlement network
- Tether
Keywords
- UTEXO
- Tether
- Bitcoin
- USDT
- Lightning Network
- RGB protocol
- fintech
- settlement
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: UTEXO, Tether, Boosty Labs, Coinbase, Bitfinex, Ledger, MetaMask, WalletConnect, Big Brain Holdings, Plan B Ventures
Products: USDT, Bitcoin, Lightning Network, RGB protocol
Places: Ukraine
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