Mezo, the bank-free Bitcoin finance platform built by Thesis*, the leading venture studio building brands on Bitcoin, announced its Mainnet launch. As the industry’s first full-stack Bitcoin economy, Mezo enables users to unlock the practical utility of Bitcoin without the need to sell it. Powering Mezo’s economy is MUSD, the first fully Bitcoin-backed stablecoin, that grants users instant spending ability by using Bitcoin as collateral.
Financial Technology Insights: Transcard and Thredd Partner to Boost Global Payment Reach
Mezo empowers Bitcoin holders to conduct everyday financial transactions without the need for banks as intermediaries. Effective immediately, users can use Bitcoin as collateral to mint and spend MUSD across various dApps in the Mezo ecosystem. At no sacrifice of their assets, they can access credit and fixed-rate MUSD loans against Bitcoin. Notably, Mezo sets a new standard in affordability for lending/borrowing, starting at 1% fixed interest rate for MUSD loans, compared to standard Bitcoin loan rates of 5%-20% APR.
Matt Luongo, CEO of Thesis* and Co-founder of Mezo, commented on today’s news: “If there’s one thing I’ve learned after a decade building on Bitcoin, it’s this: people don’t want to spend their BTC they want to earn more. Bitcoin is better money. You spend fiat, you save in BTC. The problem is, holders haven’t had many options to actually use their Bitcoin without giving it up. Mezo changes that. With Mainnet live, I can park my BTC, access a credit line, and live my life from a morning coffee to a new home. This is what being your own bank was always meant to look like. It finally lets HODLers have their cake and eat it too.”
Financial Technology Insights: PingPong Expands Global B2B Payment Platform with AI
Mezo’s Mainnet launch follows its Testnet phase that started in November 2024. This phase saw impressive community participation, surpassing $322 million in total deposits of stablecoins USDe/USDT/USDC plus wrapped Bitcoin currencies WBTC, tBTC, SolvBTC, and cbBTC; $1.8 billion in MUSD borrowed; and 154 thousand transactions.
“To make Bitcoin finance go mainstream, people can’t be thinking about slippage, transaction fees, bridging, among other inconveniences,” said Brian Mahoney, Co-founder of Mezo. “With Mezo, the goal is to abstract away on chain complexity and unlock real world use cases for the Bitcoin finance experience. In turn, this enables institutions and developers alike to unlock the next generation of users for Bitcoin Finance use cases.”
Critical technology upgrades will include Tigris, Mezo’s native incentive engine, designed to power flexible, scalable rewards and strengthen long-term ecosystem participation. Tigris will power Mezo validator rewards, the flow of protocol revenues, and create a system for distributing, tracking, and managing the flow of funds across Mezo’s Bitcoin economy.
Financial Technology Insights: D360 Bank Achieves 1 Million Customers in Just 4 Months
Additionally, Mezo is launching a partnership with Lolli, the leading rewards platform that empowers over 600,000 users to earn free bitcoin and cashback rewards on everyday purchases and mobile games. The partnership will unlock new ways for users to earn, spend, and engage with bitcoin by integrating Lolli rewards directly into the Mezo ecosystem. The partnership will also support Lolli’s international expansion, creating new opportunities for global users to participate in the circular bitcoin economy.
“Partnering with Mezo is a major step forward in our mission to make bitcoin a seamless part of everyday life through intuitive, user-friendly experiences,” said Alex Adelman, Founder and CEO of Lolli. “Over the past seven years, Lolli has empowered more than 600,000 users to effortlessly earn bitcoin on daily purchases and mobile games. Together with Mezo, we are excited to create new ways for people everywhere to save, earn, and live on bitcoin and participate in a fully bitcoin-powered economy.”
In its mission to drive the supernormal use of Bitcoin, Mezo’s launch today kicks off the “Maynet” campaign. Over the course of the next few months, Mezo will roll out additional updates for its product and reveal new partnerships. Through Mezo’s educational content, users will learn about novel MUSD use cases and how to earn rewards across various dApps on it’s marketplace. Mezo’s other ecosystem partners include the following decentralized finance (DeFi), SocialFi, and interoperability projects, among others:
- BitRefill: Crypto e-commerce platform offering gift cards to be purchased in MUSD in the Mezo Market.
- Ledger: Custom Mezo-branded Ledger devices purchasable with MUSD in the Mezo Market.
- Fold: An all-encompassing personal finance app for Bitcoiners. Mezo users can access the Fold debit card and spending platform, unlocking Bitcoin rewards and wealth-building opportunities.
- Embody: A privacy-focused menstrual tracking app that will soon allow users to pay for memberships using MUSD.
- SheFi: An educational program empowering women and nonbinary people to master crypto and Web3 through hands-on learning and community.
- Wormhole: Official bridge for multichain liquidity coming to Mezo.
- Magic Eden: Providing key wallet support and other future integrations.
- Brink: Supports the Bitcoin protocol and software by funding, mentoring, and training open source developers.
- Velar PerpDEX: Execute perpetual trades with MUSD
- Zerolend: Lending market offering loans in MUSD
- Threshold Network: Secure and maintain tBTC, a trust-minimized bridge that brings BTC liquidity into Ethereum, Solana, Optimism, and other EVM networks.
- Xverse: Bitcoin wallet that is integrated with Mezo, enabling users to access Mezo apps and features with their BTC wallet.
This year, Mezo will continue to introduce tech stack updates and partnerships to advance Bitcoin’s productivity as a capital asset. Beyond 2025, Mezo will continue to pave the way for retail and institutional users to enter the next era of personal banking, without requiring bank access—unlocking Bitcoin’s real-world value to maximize personal wealth.
To share your insights with the FinTech Newsroom, please write to us at sudipto@intentamplify.com
Source: prnewswire
