Utexo, a company pioneering Bitcoin-native yield and payment infrastructure through the RGB protocol, today announced the appointment of Federico Tenga to its advisory board. Tenga, one of the foremost authorities on RGB and a key architect behind its development, currently serves as R&D Strategist within the Bitfinex and Tether ecosystem, where he leads development of the RGB protocol implementation, the RGB Lightning node, and critical developer tooling.
His addition marks a major milestone in Utexo's mission to build the foundational layer for stablecoin issuance and global payments on Bitcoin. Tenga's work sits at the core of the infrastructure Utexo is built upon, and his insight will help ensure the company continues to push forward Bitcoin-native stablecoin infrastructure, according to Viktor Ihnatiuk, CEO of Utexo.
As one of the primary contributors to RGB, Tenga leads the Bitfinex team developing key components, including the RGB Lightning node and Iris Wallet, a mobile application recognized as a user-friendly interface for interacting with RGB-based assets. His team also created rgb-lib, a widely adopted open-source Rust library that simplifies development on RGB. This tooling supports the broader ecosystem Utexo operates within.
His appointment also strengthens Utexo's strategic alignment with Tether, which co-led the company's $7.5 million seed round. Tenga's role within the Bitfinex and Tether ecosystem creates a direct technical connection between Utexo and the teams advancing USDT's integration on Bitcoin via RGB.
“Utexo represents one of the most compelling real-world implementations of RGB today,” said Federico Tenga. “The team is focused on solving payment and liquidity challenges using Bitcoin as the base layer. The opportunity to help shape how stablecoins operate natively on Bitcoin at both the protocol and application level is compelling. I look forward to contributing to Utexo's growth within the RGB ecosystem.”
Prior to his current role, Tenga co-founded Chainside, an Italian Bitcoin payment processor that enabled merchants to accept Bitcoin, including through a partnership with itTaxi, Italy's largest taxi network. He also contributed to blockchain policy as a member of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development's national blockchain task force.
Tenga's involvement provides Utexo with direct visibility into the evolution of RGB, including emerging standards, performance improvements, and developer tooling. With Tenga joining its advisory board, Utexo continues to expand its technical leadership across Bitcoin, stablecoins, and financial infrastructure.
This development is significant because it signals growing institutional and technical support for building stablecoin infrastructure directly on Bitcoin, leveraging RGB and Lightning Network. The integration of USDT—the world's largest stablecoin—on Bitcoin via RGB could have far-reaching implications for global payments, reducing reliance on other blockchains and enhancing privacy and security. For the industry, Tenga's expertise could accelerate the adoption of Bitcoin-native stablecoins, potentially reshaping payment systems by offering instant, low-cost transactions with Bitcoin's security.
Utexo is a Bitcoin-native execution and settlement layer for stablecoin payments. By combining Lightning Network's instant execution with RGB's privacy-preserving asset issuance, Utexo's API and SDK enable payment operators to process USDT transactions instantly with predictable costs and full and private execution.
