Utexo, the team behind Bitcoin-native yield and payment infrastructure via the RGB protocol, announced the appointment of Federico Tenga to its advisory board. Tenga, a leading authority on RGB and R&D Strategist within the Bitfinex and Tether ecosystem, brings deep technical expertise to Utexo's mission of building foundational layers for stablecoin issuance and global payments on Bitcoin.
Tenga leads development of the RGB protocol implementation, including the RGB Lightning node and critical developer tooling. His work underpins the infrastructure Utexo relies on. "Federico is one of the people building the RGB ecosystem at the protocol level," said Viktor Ihnatiuk, CEO of Utexo. "His decision to join Utexo's advisory board reinforces how closely aligned we are with the future direction of Bitcoin."
As a primary contributor to RGB, Tenga leads the Bitfinex team developing the RGB Lightning node and Iris Wallet, a mobile interface for RGB-based assets. His team also created rgb-lib, an open-source Rust library that simplifies RGB development. This tooling supports the ecosystem Utexo operates within. His appointment strengthens Utexo's strategic alignment with Tether, which co-led the company's $7.5 million seed round. Tenga's role 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 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."
Prior to his current role, Tenga co-founded Chainside, an Italian Bitcoin payment processor that partnered with itTaxi, Italy's largest taxi network. He also served on the Italian Ministry of Economic Development's national blockchain task force. His involvement provides Utexo with direct visibility into RGB's evolution, including emerging standards and performance improvements.
With Tenga joining its advisory board, Utexo continues to expand its technical leadership across Bitcoin, stablecoins, and financial infrastructure. Utexo is a Bitcoin-native execution and settlement layer for stablecoin payments, combining Lightning Network's instant execution with RGB's privacy-preserving asset issuance. Its API and SDK enable payment operators to process USDT transactions instantly with predictable costs and full privacy.
