Mezo

Launched in April 2024 by Thesis, a venture studio based in the United States, Mezo is an onchain Bitcoin banking platform designed to provide permissionless access to financial services. Built on a Cosmos SDK-based chain with EVM compatibility running on CometBFT consensus, Mezo enables users to deposit Bitcoin as collateral and mint MUSD, a dollar-pegged stablecoin backed entirely by Bitcoin.

The platform offers fixed borrowing rates starting at 1% for the lifetime of a loan, with no minimum payments, set repayment schedules, or early repayment penalties. Users maintain custody of their Bitcoin while accessing instant liquidity through MUSD.

Mezo's architecture includes a dual staking model combining BTC and MEZO tokens for network validation and rewards. Transaction fees on Mezo are paid in BTC, reinforcing Bitcoin's utility as a transactional asset. The chain was developed as a modified fork of Evmos with significant customizations for Bitcoin-native functionality.

The MEZO token serves as the coordination token for the ecosystem with a fixed supply of 1 billion tokens. It is used for governance, incentive routing, and emission management. Token holders can lock MEZO to amplify earnings on locked BTC positions by up to 5x through the ve (vote-escrowed) mechanism.

Mezo has raised a total of $28.5 million in funding. A $21 million Series A round was led by Pantera Capital with participation from Multicoin Capital, Hack VC, and Draper Associates, among others. A subsequent $7.5 million strategic round was led by Ledger Cathay Fund, with participation from ArkStream Capital, GSR, Bybit's Mantle EcoFund, and others.

The project was developed by Thesis (thesis.co), one of the longest-standing venture studios building on Bitcoin, also known for tBTC, a decentralized Bitcoin bridge. Mezo's codebase is open source and available on GitHub at github.com/mezo-org.