Mezo's Bold Bid to Bring Billions in Bitcoin Home from Ethereum

NEW YORK, NY – January 12, 2026 – A new front has opened in the battle for decentralized finance supremacy, with the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems positioned for a direct contest over billions of dollars in capital. Mezo, a financial protocol built on Bitcoin, today launched its "Bring Bitcoin Home" initiative, a heavily incentivized campaign designed to pull over $11 billion in wrapped Bitcoin liquidity from the Ethereum network back to its native chain.

The protocol, developed by long-standing Bitcoin venture studio Thesis, is allocating up to 2.5% of its native MEZO token supply to reward users who migrate their Bitcoin. Starting today, holders of Ethereum-based wrapped Bitcoin tokens like WBTC, tBTC, and cbBTC can deposit their assets into special "pre-deposit vaults." These vaults promise early participants a boosted annual percentage rate (APR) estimated at around 7%, a compelling offer in the competitive world of DeFi yield. At the end of January, these assets will be automatically migrated to Mezo’s Bitcoin-native infrastructure, marking a significant attempt to consolidate Bitcoin’s economic power on its own turf.

A Battle for Billions in Bitcoin Liquidity

For years, Bitcoin holders seeking to participate in the burgeoning world of decentralized finance—including lending, borrowing, and trading—have had to rely on "wrapping" their BTC. This process involves locking up Bitcoin with a custodian who then issues an equivalent token on a smart-contract-enabled blockchain like Ethereum. While this has unlocked immense liquidity, it has also created a dependency on third-party chains and custodial services, a reality that sits uneasily with Bitcoin's core ethos of self-sovereignty.

Mezo's initiative is a direct challenge to this status quo. By targeting the more than $11 billion in wrapped Bitcoin on Ethereum, the project is making a calculated play to recenter DeFi activity around Bitcoin itself. The incentive structure is aggressive and designed to attract early momentum. Rewards are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, creating a sense of urgency for liquidity providers to make the move.

The process is designed for simplicity. Users deposit their wrapped Bitcoin or USDT into Ethereum-based vaults via a dedicated portal. On January 26, these vaults will lock, and the migration process will begin. By March 23, the assets will be available on the Mezo protocol, and depositors will receive their earned MEZO tokens, which play a key role in the platform's economic system.

Reviving Hal Finney's Vision for a Bitcoin-Native Economy

Beyond the financial incentives, Mezo is framing its mission in historical and philosophical terms, positioning itself as the fulfillment of a vision articulated by some of Bitcoin's earliest pioneers. The project's launch today was timed to coincide with the 16th anniversary of Hal Finney—the second-ever user of Bitcoin—running his own node.

"Sixteen years ago today, Hal Finney ran the second Bitcoin node and began articulating a vision of Bitcoin-backed banks—an entire financial system built on hard money," said Matt Luongo, CEO of Thesis, in the announcement. "Mezo is a Bitcoin-first system designed to support borrowing, saving, and yield directly against BTC, without custodians, wrappers, or variable-rate markets."

This vision translates into a suite of financial products built directly on Bitcoin's economic layer. Unlike many DeFi protocols that rely on fluctuating interest rates, Mezo offers fixed-rate Bitcoin-backed loans. It has also launched MUSD, a stablecoin fully collateralized by Bitcoin, and generates yield from what it calls "real onchain activity," with transaction fees denominated in BTC. This model aims to create a self-sustaining ecosystem where Bitcoin is not just a passive store of value but an active, productive asset within a permissionless banking experience.

Security, Backing, and the Specter of Regulation

Building a financial system is a high-stakes endeavor, and Mezo enters the arena with significant backing and a stated focus on security. Thesis, the venture studio behind the protocol, has been building in the Bitcoin space since 2014 and is responsible for established projects like the Fold app and the tBTC bridge. Mezo itself has raised $30 million in funding from prominent investors, including Pantera Capital, Multicoin Capital, and a strategic round led by Ledger Cathay Fund, signaling strong institutional confidence.

To address security concerns inherent in any DeFi protocol, Mezo has undergone multiple independent audits from respected firms like Halborn, OtterSec, and Quantstamp. These reviews covered the core codebase, bridging logic, and the mechanics of its MUSD stablecoin. The company states all critical issues were resolved and has made the audit reports publicly available, a gesture toward transparency.

Despite these measures and its decentralized branding, Mezo's "on-chain Bitcoin banking experience" is likely to attract regulatory attention. As global regulators like the SEC and FinCEN intensify their scrutiny of DeFi, platforms offering lending, borrowing, and stablecoins are squarely in the spotlight. While the protocol’s architecture aims for decentralization—with Bitcoin holders themselves participating in governance—regulators will ultimately make their own determination about its structure and compliance obligations. The very act of offering "banking-like" services, even on a permissionless network, navigates a complex and evolving legal landscape.

The Path to a Bitcoin-Powered Financial System

Mezo is not the only project attempting to expand Bitcoin's utility. It joins a competitive field of Layer-2 and sidechain solutions like Stacks and Rootstock, each with its own approach to bringing smart contracts and advanced applications to the Bitcoin ecosystem. Mezo distinguishes itself by avoiding the "Layer-2" label, calling itself a "Bitcoin Economic Layer" and focusing on a dual-token model where Bitcoin (as veBTC) remains the primary governance asset, while the MEZO token coordinates economic incentives.

The long-term sustainability of its model will depend on the MEZO token's economic design and the protocol's ability to generate real, fee-based revenue. The token's emission schedule follows a predictable decay curve, an attempt to avoid the hyper-inflationary death spirals that have plagued other DeFi incentive programs.

Early community sentiment reflects both excitement and caution. Investors and Bitcoin purists have lauded the project's vision and technical ambitions. However, a handful of early user reviews on platforms like Trustpilot have been mixed, with some praising the user interface and security while others have reported functional issues with loan repayment and bridging. These early experiences underscore the immense challenge of building a seamless and robust financial system. The "Bring Bitcoin Home" initiative represents a pivotal moment, a test of whether a significant portion of the market is ready to trade the established network effects of Ethereum for the promise of a truly sovereign financial future built on Bitcoin.