Tether, the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin USDT, has announced it has led an $8 million strategic investment in Speed1, Inc., a payments infrastructure company building global settlement rails using the Bitcoin Lightning Network and stablecoins. The funding round also included participation from Ego Death Capital.
The investment aligns with Tether's broader strategy to expand real-world payment use cases for USDT while supporting Bitcoin-native financial infrastructure. Speed's platform focuses on enabling instant, low-cost payments by combining the Lightning Network's high-speed transaction capabilities with stablecoin settlement for price stability. The company stated the funding will support product development and continued global expansion.
Speed currently processes more than $1.5 billion in annualized payment volume across consumers, creators, platforms, and enterprise merchants. Its core products—Speed Wallet and Speed Merchant—serve approximately 1.2 million users and businesses. The platform offers instant payments, native Bitcoin and USDT settlement, and global routing designed to meet enterprise reliability requirements.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino commented on the investment, stating, "Speed is showing what Lightning can achieve when paired with a stable, liquid digital dollar like USDT." He added that the company is focused on backing infrastructure that reduces friction in payments and broadens access to reliable settlement rails, particularly for mainstream commerce.
Speed's leadership emphasized the platform's design to move crypto beyond speculative use cases and into functional, global payments. CEO Niraj Patel noted that Lightning provides transaction speed, while stablecoins enable universal access and predictable value. The company's hybrid approach integrates closely with the Lightning Network while allowing stablecoin settlement for users requiring price stability, aiming to lower friction in cross-border payments, platform-level settlement, and merchant transactions.
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