Tether Leads $8M Investment in Speed to Advance Lightning Network-Native Bitcoin and Stablecoin Payments Infrastructure

This investment marks a deepening of Tether's strategic positioning in Bitcoin's layer-2 payment ecosystem.

Tether Bets on Lightning Network Payment Infrastructure

Stablecoin giant Tether has announced it is leading an $8 million funding round in payments infrastructure company Speed. Speed focuses on building Bitcoin and stablecoin payment solutions based on the Lightning Network, and this funding will be used to accelerate the development and expansion of its native payment infrastructure.

The Lightning Network, as Bitcoin's layer-2 scaling solution, enables near-instant and low-cost transactions by establishing payment channels off-chain. This technology is seen as a critical pathway for solving Bitcoin mainnet bottlenecks such as slow transaction speeds and high fees, and represents essential infrastructure for achieving large-scale Bitcoin payment adoption.

Tether's decision to lead Speed's funding round indicates it is extending its strategic vision from traditional strongholds like Ethereum and Tron into the Bitcoin ecosystem. This positioning echoes Tether's recent moves to issue USDT on the Bitcoin network, suggesting the company is systematically building its presence in Bitcoin payments.

Speed's Technical Positioning

Speed is dedicated to building Lightning Network-native payment infrastructure, providing merchants and users with seamless Bitcoin and stablecoin payment experiences. Compared to traditional crypto payment solutions that rely on on-chain transactions, the Lightning Network's advantages lie in near-instant transaction confirmation and extremely low fees, making micropayments possible.

The company's technical approach combines Bitcoin's Lightning Network capabilities with stablecoin price stability, attempting to address two longstanding pain points in cryptocurrency payments: volatility risk and transaction costs. Merchants can accept Lightning Network payments and choose to settle in stablecoins, while users enjoy fast, low-cost payment experiences.

This funding will help Speed expand its infrastructure coverage, optimize developer tools, and grow its merchant network. As Lightning Network adoption continues to grow, infrastructure maturity will become a key factor in determining whether it achieves mainstream adoption.

Tether's Ecosystem Expansion

For Tether, this investment continues its multi-chain expansion strategy. As the largest stablecoin issuer by market cap, Tether's USDT circulates on multiple blockchains including Ethereum, Tron, and Solana, with a total market cap exceeding $140 billion. Extending its reach to Bitcoin's Lightning Network represents a strategic positioning in the world's largest cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Tether previously launched USDT on the Bitcoin network through the Taproot Assets protocol, and this investment in Speed can be viewed as a natural extension of that strategy. Improved payment infrastructure will directly drive USDT adoption on the Lightning Network, creating synergistic effects.

Additionally, Tether has continued to diversify its investment portfolio in recent years, venturing into Bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and other sectors. The investment in Speed aligns with its emerging positioning as a cryptocurrency infrastructure investor, rather than merely a stablecoin issuer.

Lightning Network Momentum

The Lightning Network is experiencing a period of steady growth. Network capacity continues to expand, the number of merchants adopting Lightning payments is increasing, and the developer ecosystem is becoming more active. After El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender and heavily promoted Lightning Network payments, the technology gained a testing ground for scaled application.

However, the Lightning Network still faces challenges including complex user experience, difficult liquidity management, and channel capacity limitations. Infrastructure projects like Speed that focus on simplifying the Lightning Network experience are crucial for overcoming these obstacles.

The combination of stablecoins and the Lightning Network also opens new possibilities. Bitcoin's price volatility has historically been a major barrier to its use as a payment medium, while using stablecoins via the Lightning Network can retain its speed and cost advantages while eliminating volatility concerns.

Market Outlook

This funding comes against a backdrop of increasingly fierce competition in the crypto payments space. Traditional payment giants like Visa and Mastercard are exploring blockchain integration, PayPal has launched its own stablecoin, and companies like Stripe are increasing their crypto payment investments.

The Lightning Network represents a path different from these centralized solutions—decentralized infrastructure based on Bitcoin. Tether's investment in Speed bets that this decentralized path will capture a significant share of the payments market.

The $8 million funding scale is not enormous by crypto standards, but Tether's participation brings Speed strategic value far beyond the capital itself. As the dominant force in the stablecoin market, Tether's endorsement can accelerate Speed's merchant expansion and ecosystem integration.

As global demand for faster, cheaper, and more open payment solutions continues to grow, the Lightning Network and infrastructure projects built upon it are in a rare window of development opportunity. Tether's move indicates that this stablecoin giant is determined to secure a position in this sector.