Mezo, Thesis' BitcoinFi Project, Completes $7.5M Strategic Round Lead by Ledger Cathay Fund

Mezo will use this investment to accelerate technology development and grow the BitcoinFi ecosystem.

Venture studio Thesis, known for launching and funding brands in the Bitcoin ecosystem, announced today that its Bitcoin L2 project, Mezo, has closed a strategic funding round led by Ledger Cathay Fund. This round, aimed at accelerating Mezo's technology development and expanding the BitcoinFi ecosystem, follows Mezo's launch in April 2024.

The round saw participation from several key investors, including ArkStream, Aquarius Fund, Flowdesk, GSR, Origin Protocol, and Bybit ecosystem project, Mantle's EcoFund. These investors are set to play a crucial role in advancing Mezo's vision.

Mezo will utilize this investment to enhance its technology development and expand the BitcoinFi ecosystem. This includes integrating other ecosystem partners, such as the recently announced integration of yield protocol Acre and wallet partners, to enable a complete BitcoinFi experience. For instance, Mezo users can now "log in" with Bitcoin using both hardware wallets and web wallets like Unisat, OKX, and Xverse. Notably, Ledger will integrate Mezo directly into its suite of products, with further details on these integrations to be announced soon.

Commenting on today's news, Matt Luongo, CEO of Thesis & Founder of Mezo, said, "Ledger Cathay Fund's support for Mezo is a strong testament that BitcoinFi is the future of ownership, and 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."

Built by Thesis, Mezo aims to amplify Bitcoin's infrastructure, facilitating cheap, efficient transactions, and preserving the Bitcoin network's foundational principles, including security, dedication to open-source development, and a BTC-first HODL mentality. Unlike other Bitcoin L2s, Mezo provides users with access to applications usable in the real world.

These features include Thesis-built tBTC, which enables trust-minimized bitcoin bridging to numerous ecosystems, and staking with stBTC, supported by Acre, Thesis' recently launched Bitcoin-in, Bitcoin-out staking platform.

Mezo serves as a venue for users to maximize Bitcoin's full potential beyond being a store of value. Users can leverage applications to transact securely with Bitcoin without roadblocks like fragmented user experience and high gas fees. To date, Mezo has $124.5M in total volume locked and 2,152 Bitcoin deposited in the protocol.

One of the longest-standing Bitcoin builders, Thesis 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.

Pascal Gauthier, Chairman and CEO of Ledger, commented: "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."

David Toh, Managing Partner of Mirana Ventures, Mantle EcoFund's operator, added: "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)."

About Ledger Cathay Fund:

Ledger Cathay Fund is an early-stage venture fund that provides capital to emerging startups in the Web3 ecosystem, while delivering at the same time unique value added to founders. The fund invests at Seed and Series A in companies across the globe  both in equity and tokens.

The fund is the alliance of market leader Ledger for digital assets custody and of global venture capital firm Cathay Innovation. This initiative provides founders with the benefits of the industry support of Ledger together with the long-term investment practice of Cathay Innovation.

About Ledger:

Celebrating its 10 year anniversary in 2024, Ledger is the world leader in Digital Asset security for consumers and enterprises. Ledger offers connected devices and platforms, with more than 6M devices sold to consumers in 180 countries and 10+ languages, 100+ financial institutions and commercial brands. Over 20% of the world's crypto assets are secured by Ledger.

Ledger is the digital asset solution secure by design. The world's most internationally respected