Speed

Speed is a payments infrastructure platform built on Bitcoin's Lightning Network, enabling consumers and merchants to send, receive, and manage Bitcoin and stablecoins instantly across 190+ countries. The company operates two primary products — Speed Wallet for individual users and Speed Merchant for businesses — alongside a Mini Apps developer ecosystem that extends the platform's reach into e-commerce, gaming, and financial services.

Core Technology

Speed's payment rails center on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, a Layer 2 protocol that enables near-instant transactions at close to zero fees by routing payments through off-chain payment channels before settling on the Bitcoin base layer. This architecture lets Speed process transactions in roughly two seconds while keeping costs a fraction of on-chain Bitcoin fees.

The platform also built natively around stablecoins, recognizing that merchants and users sending cross-border payments need price stability alongside speed. Speed supports USDT, USDC, and Tether Gold (XAUT) in addition to BTC, giving users flexibility to hold value in a non-volatile asset while still accessing Lightning's settlement speed.

A notable technical milestone came in October 2024 when Speed introduced USDT-L — USDT transacting natively over the Bitcoin Lightning Network. This made Speed among the first wallets to carry Tether's stablecoin over Lightning rails, combining the liquidity depth of the world's most-used stablecoin with the throughput of the Lightning Network.

Products

Speed Wallet is the consumer-facing mobile and web application. Available on iOS, Android, a Chrome browser extension, and via a Telegram bot integration, it lets users buy Bitcoin with Apple Pay, credit cards, or bank transfers; swap between BTC, USDT, USDC, and XAUT; and pay at online stores or physical merchants. The wallet includes a Speed Streaks feature — a recurring daily Bitcoin purchase tool designed to encourage dollar-cost averaging — and a Premium tier offering 2% cashback on payments and higher transaction limits. The app carries a 4.9-star rating across more than 50,000 reviews and reports 99.99% uptime.

Speed Merchant targets businesses needing reliable, programmable settlement. The merchant gateway supports invoice generation, automatic payouts, and multi-currency settlement in BTC or USDT. Enterprise integrations are built around high-reliability global routing, and the gateway is available as an API that developers can connect to independently of Speed's consumer apps.

Mini Apps is a sandboxed web-view framework that lets third-party developers embed lightweight applications directly inside Speed Wallet. Apps run over HTTPS, receiving user context — account ID, balance, and Lightning address data — through URL parameters. Developers can deploy updates server-side without requiring users to update the wallet itself. The framework supports payment gateway integration for invoice generation and automatic payouts, though Speed's gateway is optional; developers can also accept standard Lightning invoices and on-chain Bitcoin or USDT addresses. Speed hosts over 100 Mini Apps across gaming, e-commerce, gift card purchases, and community engagement use cases.

Scale and Traction

Speed processes more than $1.5 billion in annual payment volume and serves 1.2 million users and businesses. The wallet has been downloaded across more than 180 countries and maintains more than 50,000 active Premium subscribers. Monthly transaction volume exceeds 10 million.

Funding and Investors

In December 2025, Speed closed an $8 million strategic funding round led by Tether, with ego death capital as co-investor. Tether's involvement reflects a deliberate strategy to strengthen Bitcoin-aligned payment infrastructure and expand real-world USDT utility. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino described the investment as supporting Speed's mission to make cryptocurrency usable "instantly, globally, and at scale" — particularly for cross-border payments and merchant settlements where traditional rails remain slow and expensive.

Regulatory Standing

Speed operates under CoinX USA LLC, which holds a FinCEN Money Services Business license (MSB License: 31000292053099). The company is not a bank, broker-dealer, or investment advisor. This licensing covers the US market; Speed's broader geographic availability across 190+ countries reflects its Lightning Network architecture, which does not require the same per-jurisdiction payment processor registration as fiat rails.

Market Position

Speed positions against both custodial Lightning wallets and broader crypto payment apps. Its differentiation rests on three pillars: USDT-L support (stablecoin settlement over Lightning rails), the Mini Apps developer platform, and consumer-grade UX — 24/7 live chat support, one-tap fiat on-ramps, and a rewards program — that lowers the barrier for users who are not native to Bitcoin. The Tether strategic relationship gives Speed a direct line to USDT liquidity and a co-investor with strong incentives to drive USDT-L adoption at scale.