Mezo and Anchorage Digital launch BTC yield product

Mezo, a Bitcoin-native platform, launched Mezo Prime, a yield product based on BTC. The new product is built in partnership with Anchorage Digital bank, the first carrier of a US banking charter. 

Mezo Prime is a new product designed for firms that hold BTC but have limited options for putting the coins to work. Mezo is targeting institutional holders and corporate treasuries, which have mostly kept BTC idle or used riskier yield products. 

Mezo Prime aims to give the optimized toolset for controlling the BTC while tapping the best yield. Mezo has already attracted $27.3M from crypto-native investors. Mezo Borrow increased its value locked by 23% in the past month, based on DeFiLlama data. 

“Over a million Bitcoin sits on corporate balance sheets today, and almost none of it is working,” said Matt Luongo, co-founder of Mezo and CEO of Thesis. “Mezo Prime changes that. Segregated custody through Anchorage Digital Bank, no rehypothecation, real yield from protocol activity. We built this for the CFOs and treasury teams who already own the asset and are ready to put it to work how they choose.”

Before the launch of Mezo Prime, companies like Nakamoto, Inc. applied their native solutions to using the BTC treasury for income through options trading. 

Mezo to offer secure BTC vault for institutions

Mezo will offer a special segregated BTC vault for institutional deposits. Each vault, called an Enclave, will be isolated per depositor, with no assets coming from other accounts. Anchorage Digital will provide the segregated custody and will offer the product to its existing customer base. 

In exchange for putting BTC in the Enclaves, depositors will receive veBTC, which can then be used as collateral to borrow Mezzo’s MUSD stablecoin. 

“Institutions want to do more with their Bitcoin, but not at the expense of security and control. Mezo Prime delivers both secure, segregated custody and direct access to onchain yield in one platform,” said Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital. 

Current custody solutions often resort to mixing the coins, creating difficulties in tracking and auditing the BTC. 

Bullish will be the first client of Mezo Prime

Among the first institutions to seek BTC yield is Bullish (NYSE: BLSH), a publicly listed institutional platform. 

Bullish reports 24,300 BTC in its treasury, with an unknown acquisition price. The BTC treasury was built as part of the company’s activities as a crypto exchange. The Bullish exchange is also focused on institutional holders, offering fully regulated services. 

“Bullish was built on the belief that institutional standards and digital asset participation aren’t in conflict, and we’re delighted to work with Mezo as a launch customer. Their veBTC design is a great example of that philosophy in practice – mitigating smart contract risk and keeping the underlying BTC secure.” said Tarun Kapoor, Vice President, Bullish

Bullish will deploy a part of its BTC treasury to the new product, while leaving the rest of the coins in custody. The initial investment will put 250 BTC into Mezo.