# U-topia Launches Self-Custody App Beta in Over 50 Countries at Bangkok Summit > U-topia opened its self-custody money app public beta in more than 50 countries, announced at a Bangkok summit that drew 700 attendees and 500 hackers. - Published: 2026-10-18T06:59:04+00:00 - Section: Product Launches - Author: News Desk - URL: https://newsforagent.com/news/2026-10-18/u-topia-public-beta-launch - Source: [GlobeNewswire](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/10/18/3382905/0/en/u-topia-launches-public-beta-as-global-builders-gather-for-u-hackathon.html) ## Key takeaways - U-topia opened its public beta in more than 50 countries on October 18, 2026, five years after it was founded. - The app lets eligible users hold, send, spend, convert and withdraw digital and everyday currencies, with U-Tag @names replacing wallet addresses. - U-Hackathon drew more than 500 hackers, and UBotPay and U-Reach took first place in the Web3 and AI tracks. U-topia opened its public beta in more than 50 countries on October 18, 2026, announcing the launch at FLOW Summit 2026 in Bangkok, five years after the company was founded. [GlobeNewswire](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/10/18/3382905/0/en/u-topia-launches-public-beta-as-global-builders-gather-for-u-hackathon.html) published the announcement. ## U-topia's Beta and the U-Tag Feature [U-topia](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/0003but/u-topia) is a financial technology company building a self-custody app for everyday money movement. The app is designed to let eligible users hold, send, spend, convert and withdraw digital and everyday currencies through one mobile app. Users can send funds to another U-topia user through a U-Tag, an @name that replaces a long wallet address. The company says funds remain under the user's control rather than being held by U-topia. The public beta follows private alpha and closed beta testing with community members and ambassadors. Feature availability varies by country, and account opening, card issuance and transactions remain subject to age requirements, identity verification, partner rules and local law. U-topia is not a bank or card issuer, and card and local currency services are provided through licensed partners where available. "Five years ago, I set a simple standard: if my mother could not use the product without calling me for help, it was not ready," said Emmanuel Quezada, founder and CEO of U-topia. "Opening the beta with people from around the world, while hundreds of builders were creating new tools beside us, brought that idea to life." ## U-Hackathon Awards and Sponsors FLOW Summit, held October 15-16 at Avani Sukhumvit Bangkok, drew more than 700 attendees, including technology entrepreneurs, developers and community members. U-Hackathon attracted more than 500 hackers and builders who worked through a 24-hour build period with product, engineering and design mentors before presenting prototypes in artificial intelligence and Web3 tracks. Organizers recognized three teams in each track and valued the combined awards at more than 2.5 million Thai baht, including the advertised THB 1 million core prize pool, partner bounties and technology credits. UBotPay, an AI-powered payment agent built for Web3, won first place in the Web3 track, and U-Reach, an AI-powered marketing, sales and customer relationship management platform, took first place in the AI track. U-Hackathon was sponsored by ElevenLabs, [Tokenomist](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/00465aa/tokenomist) AI and DTC Group, in association with Avalanche, Team1 Thailand, Yellow.com, [ContributionDAO](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/000374p/contributiondao), CUBS Chula and Hooray. Tokenomist's crypto intelligence platform hosted Forgd's Market Maker Performance Index, a public leaderboard assigning letter grades to digital asset market makers, Aijourn reported on August 12, 2026. ## U-topia's Funding and Card Partnerships According to akta.pro [company records](https://akta.pro/company-data), U-topia closed a seed round of $850,000 in April 2024 led by GDA Capital, with GDA executives joining as advisors. The same records list total funding of $900,000 and one funding round on record. U-topia established Visa network connectivity through regulated issuing and banking partners, with Third National identified as the card issuer in its U-TOPIA Spend Card Terms. ## Self-Custody Wallet Launches Elsewhere Ledger unveiled Atom, an $849 hardware wallet with tampering protections expected to ship in summer 2027, [Cointelegraph](https://ct.com/news/ledger-new-hardware-device-asia-wallet-tampering) reported on October 15, 2026. Solana Mobile's Seeker smartphone uses a hardware-backed Seed Vault to isolate private keys in a trusted execution environment, [Analytics Insight](https://www.analyticsinsight.net/solana/solana-mobile-security-explained-hardware-wallets-private-keys-and-device-protection) reported on October 16, 2026. Bron launched FaceScan, a wallet recovery feature powered by iProov's Dynamic Liveness, [FinancialContent Business Page](https://www.financialcontent.com/article/bizwire-2026-10-6-bron-launches-facescan-powered-by-iproov-enabling-bron-users-to-recover-access-to-their-wallet-with-a-single-face-scan) reported on October 6, 2026. Scallop launched Scallop Wallet, a self-custody browser wallet available in the Chrome Web Store, [TradingView](https://www.tradingview.com/news/binance_news:c525343ec094b:0-sui-lending-protocol-scallop-launches-self-custody-browser-wallet/) reported on October 14, 2026. ## U.bot Preview at FLOW Summit FLOW Summit included a preview of U.bot, a related AI venture from members of U-topia's founding team. U.bot is being developed as a user-controlled orchestration layer that can select among AI models and coordinate specialized agents. Its long-term roadmap aims to create a more capable personal AI experience with characteristics the team associates with superintelligence, and those advanced capabilities are planned and are not currently available. ## Companies in this story - [U-topia company profile](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/0003but/u-topia) · website: https://u-topia.com - [Tokenomist company profile](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/00465aa/tokenomist) · website: https://tokenomist.ai - [ContributionDAO company profile](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/000374p/contributiondao) · website: https://www.contributiondao.com --- News for Agent · https://newsforagent.com/llms.txt