Mezo launches institutional Bitcoin yield vaults with Anchorage Digital and Bullish, including 250 BTC anchor investment

Mezo Prime launches with Anchorage and Bullish to route institutional Bitcoin into segregated, qualified‑custody vaults that earn onchain yield and mint BTC‑backed MUSD.

Bitcoin‑native finance protocol Mezo has launched Mezo Prime, a new institutional product designed to give corporate treasuries and professional BTC holders access to on‑chain yield and lending while remaining inside a qualified‑custody framework. The offering is built in partnership with Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. and will go to market with Bullish (NYSE: BLSH) as its first institutional customer, alongside a 250 BTC investment into Mezo from the exchange operator.

Mezo Prime targets a growing pool of corporate and institutional Bitcoin that has so far remained largely idle. Publicly traded companies alone now hold more than 1 million BTC on their balance sheets, according to recent treasury data. “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 venture studio Thesis, in prepared remarks. “Mezo Prime changes that. Segregated custody through Anchorage Digital Bank, no rehypothecation, real yield from protocol activity.”

Bitcoin-native thesis

At the core of the new product are Enclaves, segregated Bitcoin (BTC) vaults offered via Anchorage Digital Bank and exposed directly through the Anchorage platform to its existing institutional client base. Each Enclave is isolated per depositor, with no asset commingling and no rehypothecation, designed to meet higher standards for control, reporting and risk management than typical pooled yield products. BTC held in an Enclave can be locked as veBTC to earn protocol fees from Mezo’s Bitcoin‑native activity or used as collateral to borrow MUSD, Mezo’s 100% Bitcoin‑backed stablecoin.

“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 onchain yield in one platform,” said Nathan McCauley, co‑founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital, as the bank moves to expand its range of yield‑generating options for clients. The product is available immediately to Anchorage Digital Bank clients via the bank’s existing interface.

Bullish, the institutionally focused digital asset platform and parent company of CoinDesk, will be the first institution to participate in the Mezo Prime Bitcoin yield product through its corporate treasury. A portion of Bullish’s BTC holdings will be deployed into Enclaves on Mezo while remaining inside Anchorage Digital’s custody and compliance stack, with a 250 BTC investment into Mezo coinciding with the launch. “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,” said Tarun Kapoor, vice president at Bullish. “Their veBTC design is a great example of that philosophy in practice – mitigating smart contract risk and keeping the underlying BTC secure.”

Today’s launch builds on Mezo’s broader push to create a Bitcoin‑native DeFi stack that includes fixed‑rate BTC‑backed loans, the MUSD stablecoin and BTC‑denominated protocol fees, as well as earlier integrations such as support via Anchorage’s self‑custody wallet Porto and multichain connectivity through Wormhole. With corporate treasuries continuing to accumulate Bitcoin as a reserve asset, products like Mezo Prime illustrate how yield‑bearing, on‑chain strategies are increasingly being adapted to institutional constraints rather than asking institutions to bend to DeFi’s.