Thesis, which is one of the longest-standing venture studios funding and building brands on Bitcoin, announced a strategic funding round led by Ledger Cathay Fund (Ledger and Cathay Innovation’s early-stage venture fund) for Mezo, its permissionless Bitcoin Economic Layer.
With this $7.5 million round, this brings the total funding for Mezo to $30 million following its launch earlier this year. The other investors in the strategic round include ArkStream, Aquarius Fund, Flowdesk, GSR, Origin Protocol, and Bybit ecosystem project, Mantle’s EcoFund.
Mezo will use this funding to accelerate technology development and grow the BitcoinFi ecosystem. And this includes focus on integrating other ecosystem partners, such as the recently announced integration of yield protocol Acre and wallet partners to enable a fulsome BitcoinFi experience, such as the recently announced ability for Mezo users to “log in” with Bitcoin using both hardware wallets and web wallets like Unisat, OKX, and Xverse. Ledger plans to integrate Mezo directly into its suite of products with further details on integrations to be disclosed in the near future.
Mezo amplifies Bitcoin’s infrastructure by facilitating cheap and efficient deals. In turn, it preserves the Bitcoin network’s foundational principles, such as security, dedication to open-source development, and a BTC-first HODL mentality. Unique from other Bitcoin L2s, Mezo provides users access to applications usable in the real world. The features include Thesis-built tBTC, which allows for trust-minimized bitcoin bridging to numerous ecosystems, plus staking with stBTC, supported by Acre, Thesis’ recently launched Bitcoin-in, Bitcoin-out staking platform.
Mezo works as a venue for users to maximize Bitcoin’s full potential beyond being a store of value. And users can utilize applications to transact securely with Bitcoin without roadblocks like fragmented user experience and high gas fees. So far, Mezo has $124.5 million in total volume locked and 2,152 Bitcoin deposited in the protocol.
Thesis, one of the longest standing Bitcoin builders, launched in 2013, has supported multiple brand launches of projects within the Bitcoin ecosystem including Mezo, Acre, tBTC, and Fold – who recently announced its plans to go public as the first pureplay financial services company powered by Bitcoin.
KEY QUOTES:
“Ledger Cathay Fund’s support for Mezo is a strong testament that BitcoinFi is the future of ownership, that Mezo is the leader in building the technology behind this future. Today is a tremendous milestone in our work with investors and peers to expand the Bitcoin network, bringing on-chain a circular economy that empowers people worldwide to put BTC to work.”
- Matt Luongo, CEO of Thesis & Founder of Mezo
“At Ledger, we are Bitcoiners and we believe Bitcoin is the event. But the landscape of Bitcoin is changing. People want to do more with their Bitcoin, and we need to not only support these new developments in Ledger products, but actively support the future of Bitcoin development. We are therefore thrilled to invest in Mezo, a groundbreaking Bitcoin project that we believe will significantly impact the Bitcoin ecosystem. This investment signals our confidence in Thesis and their project, Mezo, based on their long standing track record of building successful brands in the Bitcoin ecosystem.”
- Pascal Gauthier, Chairman and CEO of Ledger
“We really believe in Mezo’s unique vision to supercharge Bitcoin to become an economic layer. Thanks to all the synergies created by their Thesis incubator, Mezo can be the core element of this ecosystem, and create network effects from their decentralized bridge with tBTC to their consumer app with Fold. We were truly impressed by this unique positioning, combined with the very impressive execution capabilities of the Mezo team.”
- Marguerite de Tavernost, Investment Director at Ledger Cathay Fund
“Investing in Mezo perfectly aligns with Mantle’s vision of supporting and scaling innovations in the Bitcoin ecosystem. We have confidence in Mezo and the synergistic projects led by the Thesis team. We look forward to fostering Mezo’s growth through potential strategic collaborations with projects within the Mantle ecosystem, such as Ignition ($FBTC) and Mantle LSP (Mantle’s Liquid Staking Protocol).”
- David Toh, Managing Partner of Mirana Ventures, Mantle EcoFund’s operator
