Bitfinex has invested in Plasma, a Bitcoin-focused payments, real-world asset, and decentralized financial infrastructure platform.
The Bitfinex team announced on October 18th through X that it has invested in Plasma to scale the use of Tether (USDT) on Bitcoin (BTC).
According to a blog post introducing Plasma, the platform aims to be a zero-fee payment rail for USDT.
It is a network that allows users to send US dollar-denominated assets to anyone in the world using Bitcoin without any fees. Plasma seeks to leverage the benefits of USDT and other stablecoins, with its network as the execution layer, rather than BTC as the native payment asset.
Plasma has native UTXO support, allowing you to pay for gas in BTC. This account architecture also means a hybrid environment where users can take advantage of Bitcoin staking and other benefits. It also provides compatibility with the Ethereum virtual machine.
In addition to solving global payments challenges, Plasma also aims to drive further adoption of the Bitcoin network across RWA and DeFi, according to the blog post.
Paolo Ardoino, Chief Technology Officer of Bitfinex (also CEO of Tether), commented on the investment:
“Bitfinex is excited to support the growing Bitcoin ecosystem with our investment in Plasma. It is critical that we explore different avenues to build on top of Bitcoin, a decentralized and resilient network of money and speech.”
Plasma also has financial backing from investor Christian Angermeyer, founder of Apeiron Investment Group. Others include venture capital platforms Split Capital, Manifold, and Anthos Capital.
