Mezo: The Everyday Use Case for Bitcoin
Sep 8, 2025
TLDR
The Onchain Bitcoin Bank: Use your BTC as collateral to borrow MUSD—a 100% Bitcoin-backed stablecoin—so you can spend, pay bills, or deploy capital without selling your
Predictable costs: Fixed-rate loans (generally 1–5%) with no forced repayment schedule; manage your LTV and repay anytime.
Deep liquidity, high LTV: Access up to 90% of your BTC’s value with onchain, verifiable reserves.
Live today: Mezo is live on mainnet; borrow and spend MUSD across the ecosystem.
Mezo is the onchain Bitcoin Bank built to make Bitcoin productive in day-to-day finance. Users post BTC as collateral and mint/borrow MUSD at fixed rates; all collateral and positions are transparent onchain. Mezo is EVM-compatible and integrates tBTC to safely bring BTC liquidity to smart-contract environments.
How does borrowing work on Mezo?
Deposit BTC to open a borrow position.
Mint/borrow MUSD at a fixed rate (typically 1–5%), choosing your target LTV.
Use MUSD for purchases, treasury and DeFi; repay anytime to unlock your BTC.
MUSD maintains a $1 peg and is 100% backed by Bitcoin; positions and proof-of-reserves are viewable 24/7.
What is Mezo Network?
Mezo Network is an EVM-compatible. It aims to expand Bitcoin's functionality by enabling the development of BitcoinFi through decentralized finance (DeFi) applications that utilize Bitcoin as the primary asset. This is significant because the majority of DeFi applications are currently built on the Ethereum platform. Mezo focuses on creating a system that incentivizes long-term Bitcoin holding and promotes the use of Bitcoin in DeFi.
Unlike other Bitcoin layers that primarily focus on scaling transactions (similar to what Layer-2 solutions do for Ethereum), Mezo prioritizes building an intuitive UI that enables spending, borrowing and transacting all on bitcoin natively, without the headaches of traditional bitcoin UI/UX, all without needing to sell your Bitcoin. This means it leverages Bitcoin's security and decentralization while providing additional functionality and incentives for DeFi applications. By operating as a Layer-2 solution, Mezo aims to improve transaction speeds and reduce costs compared to using the Bitcoin blockchain directly.
Understanding Mezo Network
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator, that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries.
Mezo has designed a system built on tBTC, which is the largest decentralized Bitcoin bridge in production. This allows Bitcoin holders to utilize their Bitcoin across different blockchains. Mezo is specifically designed for Bitcoin holders, emphasizing user ownership and alignment with Bitcoin's core principles. One unique feature of Mezo is the ability to pay transaction fees in BTC, which maintains a pure Bitcoin experience and advances Bitcoin as a cultural payment currency. The Dual Staking Model combines rewards and validation to incentivize network participation and security. The BitcoinFi Ecosystem is a suite of Bitcoin-native financial applications, including lending, borrowing, and yield generation. Real-World Applications include tools and protocols to bridge BitcoinFi with traditional finance and business operations. The platform also supports Ethereum and Cosmos developers.
Mezo Key Features
Fixed rates & onchain transparency: Loans are created and settled onchain with predictable costs.
High LTV access: Borrow against up to 90% of BTC value, with clear liquidation health indicators.
BTC-native experience: Mezo even supports BTC as gas, keeping the experience Bitcoin-first.
Mainnet now: Mezo launched to mainnet, enabling fixed-rate MUSD loans against Bitcoin.
What Makes Mezo Network stand out from the rest?
Mezo Network distinguishes itself by addressing a critical challenge in the Bitcoin ecosystem: expanding Bitcoin's capabilities while preserving its core principles. It achieves this by leveraging tBTC, a truly decentralized and trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge. This choice of foundation is what truly sets Mezo apart. Here's why tBTC is so important: most bridges that allow you to use Bitcoin on other blockchains rely on centralized custodians. This means you have to trust a company or a small group to hold your Bitcoin while you're using a "wrapped" version of it elsewhere. tBTC flips this model on its head. With tBTC, your Bitcoin is not held by a single entity but secured by a decentralized network. This aligns perfectly with Bitcoin's ethos of decentralization and trust minimization. Anyone can participate in the minting or redeeming of tBTC, making it completely permissionless and transparent. You can even observe the entire bridging process in real-time!
A Quick Look at the Technical Architecture behind Mezo
Mezo is built with a focus on Bitcoin-centricity and security. It leverages tBTC, a decentralized Bitcoin bridging system developed by Thesis, to enable the transfer of Bitcoin to and from the Mezo network. This allows users to utilize their Bitcoin in DeFi applications while maintaining its security and decentralization.
Mezo employs CometBFT consensus, a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) algorithm, to ensure network security even if some validator nodes are compromised. CometBFT validators propose and vote on blocks of transactions, contributing to the network's stability and resilience.
Furthermore, Mezo utilizes a dual staking model where users can stake Bitcoin and MEZO tokens to earn rewards and participate in network validation. This model incentivizes users to contribute to the network's security while also benefiting from their participation.
Mezo's EVM compatibility is achieved through its use of tBTC, which allows Bitcoin to be represented as an ERC-20 token on the Mezo network. This compatibility enables developers to build and deploy a wide range of DeFi applications on Mezo, expanding the utility of Bitcoin within a secure and efficient environment.
Use Cases for Mezo Network
Mezo's primary use case is to facilitate the use of Bitcoin in DeFi applications. Its EVM compatibility allows developers to create a wide range of DeFi products, such as:
Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs): Trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in a decentralized and trustless manner.
Lending and Borrowing Platforms: Using Bitcoin as collateral for loans or earning interest on Bitcoin deposits.
Stablecoin Issuance: Creating stablecoins backed by Bitcoin, providing stability and liquidity to the ecosystem.
Prediction Markets: Using Bitcoin to bet on the outcome of events.
Investors and Backers
Mezo has garnered significant investment from prominent players in the blockchain and venture capital space. In April 2024, Mezo completed a $21 million Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Multicoin Capital, Hack VC and Draper Associates, among others. This funding demonstrates strong confidence in Mezo's potential to transform the Bitcoin ecosystem. Note that in July of 2024, Mezo had a Strategic Funding round. Mezo raised an additional $7.5 million in their funding round led by Ledger Cathay Fund. Other investors included ArkStream Capital, Aquarius Fund, Flowdesk, GSR, Origin Protocol and Mantle EcoFund. The total Funding as of July 2024 was a total of $28.5 million.
Partnerships
Mezo’s ecosystem makes Bitcoin banking work across chains.
Wormhole — Native Token Transfers (NTT) now power MUSD between Mezo and Ethereum, giving Bitcoin-backed liquidity multichain reach; transfers are live via Portal.
Upshift — Integrated BTC vaults and campaigns help users route BTC and earn program rewards alongside Mezo activity..
M^0 — Collaboration to expand stablecoin utility and participation across ecosystems.
Portal to Bitcoin — Cross-chain access for Mezo users, connecting Mezo accounts and liquidity flows across ecosystems.
Threshold (tBTC) — Decentralized BTC bridging and custody layer that underpins Bitcoin-native finance on Mezo.
Competitors of Mezo Network
While Mezo is a unique platform, it operates in a competitive landscape with other Bitcoin layer-2 solutions and DeFi platforms. Some notable competitors include:
Lightning Network: A layer-2 payment protocol that enables fast and cheap Bitcoin transactions by creating off-chain payment channels.
Stacks: A platform that enables smart contracts and dApps on the Bitcoin blockchain by connecting to Bitcoin as a Layer-1.
RSK: A smart contract platform secured by the Bitcoin network that aims to provide Turing-complete smart contracts while leveraging Bitcoin's security.
Mezo differentiates itself by being purpose-built to give Bitcoiners better use cases. Post BTC as collateral and borrow MUSD at fixed, transparent rates. MUSD is 100% Bitcoin-backed and usable for spending, bills, and treasury, so you can unlock liquidity without selling your BTC. Put MUSD to work as productive capital by deploying into onchain opportunities to earn yield, and repay anytime to get your Bitcoin back. All positions, collateral, and health are fully visible onchain.
Mezo is live on mainnet. Mats are now tied to real onchain activity (e.g., deposits/borrows and program participation) rather than testnet campaigns, so your engagement maps directly to how you use Mezo’s Bitcoin banking features. Open a position, borrow MUSD, and manage it from a transparent, onchain dashboard.
Deposit BTC as collateral to open your position.
Borrow MUSD at a fixed, transparent rate and choose your target LTV.
Use, manage, and repay: spend or deploy MUSD; monitor position health onchain; top up or repay anytime to unlock your BTC.
Conclusion
Mezo Network presents a compelling vision for the future of Bitcoin. Mezo is purpose-built for everyday Bitcoin finance: fixed-rate borrowing against BTC, a 100% Bitcoin-backed stablecoin for spend and treasury, and full onchain transparency. It gives Bitcoiners practical ways to stay long while putting capital to work. While challenges remain, such as competition from other platforms and the need for sustainable yield generation models, Mezo's potential to transform the way we use and interact with Bitcoin is undeniable.
Borrow with Mezo today.
For more information and to stay up to date on Mezo’s latest developments, visit:
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