Crypto: New Bitcoin-native Usdt Protocol Joins Ctdg Dev Hub 2026

An emerging protocol enabling native USDT transactions on Bitcoin becomes the latest participant of CTDG Dev Hub, a developer-centric technical hub by Cointelegraph focused on protocol design, implementation approaches, and network upgrade proposals.

Bitcoin has long served a simple purpose: storing and transferring value. The blockchain’s inherent limitations in scalability and programmability prevented use cases like high-frequency payments and smart contracts.

Launched in 2018, the layer-2 solution Lightning Network introduced noticeable improvements in scalability. It takes some of the burden offchain by creating side channels between the sender and receiver.

The model settles transactions faster, with lower fees. Rendering Bitcoin feasible for daily use, the solution spurred the development of many payment apps on the blockchain.

Programmability also arrived in Bitcoin through secondary protocols, such as RGB, an open-source solution designed to expand Bitcoin’s capabilities. The protocol enables the creation of smart contracts and other digital assets on Bitcoin through private, offchain transactions.

RGB powers decentralized applications (DApps) and tokenization, and allows digital assets other than Bitcoin (BTC) to exist on top of the original blockchain.

CTDG Dev Hub, a collaborative platform for blockchain developers working on protocol ideas, has added Utexo as a new participant. The project examines how stablecoin transfers could be represented natively on Bitcoin by combining the Lightning Network’s payment channels with RGB’s client-side asset model. By focusing on interoperability between Bitcoin’s scaling and asset layers, Utexo aligns with DevHub’s goal of supporting experimental infrastructure research and practical developer-driven use cases.

Before the introduction of native solutions, the prevailing practice for using USDT on Bitcoin was utilizing methods like wrapping and bridging, which add intermediaries to the process and increase security risks.

Utexo moves USDT on Bitcoin-native rails instead by combining Lightning’s payment flow with RGB’s asset transfer model. Through RGB, USDT is issued and transferred under a client-side validation model, which keeps most of the transaction details off Bitcoin’s base layer.

Meanwhile, the Lightning Network enables fast and low-cost execution. Bitcoin’s layer-1 only serves as the security anchor that ultimately settles transactions and prevents double-spending.

Source: CoinTelegraph