Mezo is excited to share a few prime features debuting in 2025 and how they fit into the longer-term roadmap.

Table of Contents

• Introduction: Bitcoin capital markets are inefficient
• Bringing Bitcoin to the real world
• The path to mainnet
• Feature sets on Mezo: mUSD and Borrow, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, and Tigris: Mezo's integrated incentive system.
• The 2025 roadmap
• Key points
• The endgame

Borrowing Against Bitcoin is Hard

2024 was an explosive year for Bitcoin, with truly unexpected recognition and adoption from institutions and governments. Yet, the very qualities that make Bitcoin uniquely valuable and desirable for investors—its scarcity, immutability, decentralization, and global nature—have created an interesting paradox: Bitcoin holders want to HODL forever, yet the network needs velocity and utility to be considered a strong global financial asset.

Bitcoin is missing a native ecosystem with financial tools that let users borrow, spend, and earn without selling their coins.

Solutions to this problem exist today, but they fall short for two reasons:

1. Unpredictable Costs: Most Bitcoin loans today have volatile rates (5%–20%+ APR), making long-term planning, like buying a home, a gamble.
2. Compromised Sovereignty: While Bitcoin is among the highest quality collateral, it lacks the capital infrastructure to match its potential. Current solutions force users onto non-Bitcoin chains like Ethereum, introducing custodial risks, wrapped assets, and fragmented security. That kind of setup puts the control, security, and independence of your most valuable asset in someone else's hands—it's like storing gold in a stranger's vault and trusting their IOUs.

Bitcoin holders are credit-worthy individuals (they hold the hardest asset ever created), but their creditworthiness has not translated to a friendly UX when it comes to accessing their BTC equity.

Mezo solves this by building a Bitcoin native capital infrastructure: no middlemen, no variable rates, and no selling your BTC.

Make Your Bitcoin Useful IRL

Mezo’s infrastructure will facilitate fixed-rate loans secured by Bitcoin and settled on-chain. Eliminating rate volatility means that borrows get the stability of traditional fixed-income markets but without centralized black-box models. This enables real-world use cases such as:

• A homeowner in Austin, Texas, secures a mortgage using BTC as collateral at a 7% fixed rate, avoiding capital gains taxes and retaining ownership.
• A South American business owner accesses a loan to expand operations, using Bitcoin to collateralize debt without relying on unstable local currencies.
• Daily transactions shift from credit cards to Bitcoin-backed credit lines, where spending is powered by BTC equity, not debt.

This is Mezo’s blueprint for a circular Bitcoin economy. Just as the New York Stock Exchange standardized capital markets in 1792, Mezo will enable stable borrowing frameworks, robust liquidity, and transparent onchain lending markets. Mezo’s North Star is a world where people live on Bitcoin. This means mortgages funded by BTC collateral, everyday purchases made through self-repaying credit lines, and wealth that grows without ever selling a satoshi.

The Path to Mainnet

Where Mezo Is Today

• Protocol TVL surpassing $200 million since April 2024
• mUSD live on testnet with 3,000+ borrowers, together trading $38m worth of volume
• 25,000+ users, each engaging in more than three transactions
• Community-driven meme market fueling organic engagement
• Comprehensive testnet infrastructure featuring oracles, indexers, and early Mezo-native ecosystem dApps
• 20+ validators, including P2P, Chorus One, and Everstake

🚨 A few feature sets that Mezo anticipates will go live this year. 🚨

1. mUSD and Borrowing Bitcoin

mUSD is Mezo’s native stablecoin, backed entirely by Bitcoin reserves and designed to let Bitcoin holders unlock stable liquidity without selling their BTC. Borrowers create mUSD by opening a Collateralized Debt Position (CDP), posting BTC as collateral to mint a dollar-pegged stablecoin usable for spending, trading, lending, and borrowing.

This approach draws inspiration from MakerDAO’s proven model, where dynamic overcollateralization, automated liquidations, and adjustable stability fees anchor the value of a decentralized stable asset.

mUSD adapts that framework to the Bitcoin economy, offering transparent onchain reserves, permissionless issuance, and real-time risk controls.

Key features that set mUSD apart:

• Fully transparent Bitcoin reserves visible onchain
• No centralized custody requirements
• Permissionless access for all users
• Real-time position management and health monitoring
• 100% Bitcoin-backed
• Issued on chain, with 100% transparency
• Soft liquidations and simple collateral management

Mezo integrates with leading lending protocols to maximize capital efficiency and enable mUSD looping strategies. Portfolio managers are incentivized to manage risk and actively drive capital into vaults, creating deeper liquidity pools for borrowers.

mUSD provides the stable core needed for day-to-day transactions, large purchases, and yield strategies in a Bitcoin-centered economy. This stable liquidity expands Bitcoin’s utility, enabling mortgages, business financing, and recurring expenses without forcing users to relinquish their BTC exposure. By fusing proven stablecoin mechanisms with Bitcoin’s collateral strength, mUSD becomes the cornerstone of a circular BitcoinFi ecosystem.

2. The Cathedral & The Bazaar

Mainnet brings Mezo’s architectural philosophy to life through two complementary environments: the Cathedral and Bazaar, creating a unified onchain experience that serves both experienced users and newcomers:

• The Cathedral: A secure, reliable BitcoinFi ecosystem offering recognizable and easy-to-use financial tools. The Cathedral houses Mezo’s core infrastructure—seamlessly integrated swap, lend, borrow, bridge, and stake functionalities designed specifically for Bitcoin. This eliminates the friction of scattered or duplicated DeFi apps by consolidating essential functions under one Bitcoin-centric architecture.
• The Bazaar: Beyond core lending and borrowing, the Mezo community can develop SocialFi, GameFi, and experimental dApps. All hosted on Mezo and backed by Bitcoin. This permissionless playground empowers builders to innovate freely while leveraging Mezo’s native infrastructure, fostering a diverse ecosystem that encourages new use cases for Bitcoin.

3. Tigris

Tigris, Mezo's integrated incentive management system, creates a sustainable economic flywheel that rewards long-term participants. Drawing inspiration from proven DeFi mechanisms like Aerodrome's ve(3,3) model, Tigris unifies:

1. Fee distribution from chain activity and core applications
2. Enhanced governance rights for committed participants
3. Efficient liquidity markets through bribe mechanisms

In Tigris' matsnet phase (pictured above), core apps on Mezo, such as Borrow, Swap, and mUSD, will have all fees flowing to veBTC lockers. This ensures that both the long-term stakeholders are rewarded the most, as well as prioritizing directing value towards Bitcoiners.

Details and technical architecture for Tigris will be coming soon.

The Roadmap

2025 is the year Bitcoin becomes productive.

Phase 1: Mainnet Launch

• Mainnet deployment of core infrastructure
• Introduction of a Unified Bitcoin account experience
• Launch of Mezo lending platform with fixed-rate Bitcoin loans on mUSD
• Deployment of initial Bazaar frameworks
• Tigris Goes Live
• Mezo’s Bitcoin-Native DEX Goes Live

Phase 2: Layered Lending Launch

Layered lending is a concept that will increase Bitcoin’s productivity and sophistication as a capital asset. With layered lending on Mezo, Bitcoin will act as senior collateral, enabling lending against a broader range of assets while isolating risk. This expands market opportunities while still providing a positive and reliable lending experience for Bitcoin lenders.

• Integration of real-world asset (RWA) support
• Expansion of Bazaar development tools
• Enhanced cross-chain Bitcoin bridging solutions

The Endgame

Bitcoin capital markets are inefficient today, creating friction for Bitcoin holders who want to tap into their wealth. The main problems users face:

1. Unexpected and volatile financing costs
2. Hidden black box models that often require giving up control of their keys to third parties.

Mezo’s infrastructure will unlock the next level of personal banking, providing a place to borrow against your Bitcoin that’s easy, transparent, and predictable.

With a fully integrative incentive management system via Tigris, Mezo will be able to direct value to the network's long-term stakeholders and ensure that systems like Mezo Borrow and mUSD have proper user incentives.

mUSD is the key ingredient to an entire Bitcoin-native financial system. Mezo invites builders, users, and innovators to create a future where Bitcoin becomes the global economy.

The road to banking on yourself starts with borrowing on Mezo.

👉 Start Today:

• 🏦 Deposit on Testnet
• 📚 Read the Docs
• 👾 Join the Discord

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