Mezo rolls out institutional Bitcoin yield vaults as Bullish deploys 250 BTC with Anchorage Digital

More than a million Bitcoins now sit on corporate balance sheets. Most of it isn’t doing anything. Companies hold it in custody, hedge it, or park it as a long-term asset. What’s been missing is a way to earn yield without stepping outside the guardrails that treasury teams expect.

Mezo is stepping into that gap with a new product aimed squarely at institutional holders. The Bitcoin-native finance platform has introduced Mezo Prime, a system built to let companies put their BTC to work without giving up control or visibility. The offering comes in partnership with Anchorage Digital, the first federally chartered digital asset bank in the U.S., and launches with Bullish as an early participant.

At the core of Mezo Prime is a structure called “Enclaves,” which are segregated Bitcoin vaults set up per client. Assets aren’t pooled. Each depositor gets isolation, a setup meant to align with how institutions already think about custody and risk. Anchorage Digital provides custody, and access to the product is integrated directly into its platform.

“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.”

The mechanics lean on Mezo’s broader ecosystem. Bitcoin held inside an enclave can be locked as veBTC, a yield-bearing version of BTC that earns fees generated by the protocol. It can serve as collateral to borrow MUSD, Mezo’s Bitcoin-backed stablecoin. The idea is to keep activity within a Bitcoin-centric system rather than pushing assets into external lending setups that many institutions have avoided.

“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 on-chain yield

in one platform.”— Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital.

Why institutions have kept Bitcoin idle—and what Mezo is trying to change

That tension—between earning yield and maintaining strict controls—has kept many large holders on the sidelines. Previous cycles exposed the risks tied to rehypothecation and opaque lending practices. Products that promise yield now face a higher bar, especially for firms managing treasury assets or operating under regulatory oversight.

Bullish is putting capital behind the concept from day one. The publicly traded digital asset platform plans to allocate a portion of its Bitcoin treasury to Mezo Prime, keeping custody within the same infrastructure it already uses. The move comes alongside a 250 BTC investment tied to the product’s rollout.

“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

Mezo is part of a broader push to build financial tools that keep Bitcoin at the center, rather than treating it as collateral that moves across multiple chains and platforms. Its stack includes MUSD, a fully Bitcoin-backed stablecoin, veBTC for yield, and a decentralized exchange for liquidity and swaps. The project is backed by Thesis, a venture studio that has been building Bitcoin-focused products for more than a decade.

The bigger question is whether institutions are ready to move beyond passive holding. Many already have the exposure. What they haven’t had is infrastructure that matches their internal requirements for custody, reporting, and risk. Mezo is betting that demand is already there—it just needed a system that fits how these firms operate.