Mezo, a Bitcoin BTC +4.72% scaling network built by venture studio Thesis, has raised $7.5 million in a strategic funding round led by Ledger Cathay Fund. 

Other investors in the round included ArkStream Capital, Aquarius Fund, Flowdesk, GSR, Origin Protocol and Mantle EcoFund, Bybit's ecosystem project, Thesis said Friday.

The strategic funding round comes three months after Mezo emerged from stealth with $21 million in funding led by Pantera Capital, bringing its total funding to $30 million. "There were some additional checks put in following the last announcement that were not included in this strategic round," Matt Luongo, founder of Mezo and CEO of Thesis, told The Block.

Luongo said Mezo began raising funds for the strategic round about a month ago and closed it last week. He declined to comment on the round's structure and valuation.

With fresh funding in place, Mezo plans to grow the adoption of its network. This includes integrating more products within its network, such as its Bitcoin staking platform, Acre, which lets users mint liquid staked bitcoin (stBTC) by depositing Thesis' tBTC or WBTC +4.30% into Mezo. stBTC can then be used in decentralized applications to earn additional yield.

Luongo declined to comment on how much yield Mezo currently provides but said the platform has around 12,000 users who have deposited about 2,376 BTC, currently worth about $160 million. Mezo issues "Proof of HODL" points to its depositors and has so far issued over 1.2 billion points to the top ten users, Luongo said.

When asked if those points will be converted into Mezo's own token at a later date, Luongo said the details would be announced soon. The MEZO token's launch timings will also be disclosed later.

"MEZO is part of our dual-token staking validation model," Luongo said. "Validators can stake MEZO to secure the network. [...] MEZO's main use case is focused around building a true economic layer for Bitcoin enabling BitcoinFi applications like the native bitcoin yield offered by fellow Thesis project, Acre, along with on-chain social use cases and others to be announced."

Ledger, for example, plans to integrate Mezo directly into its suite of products, Luongo said, declining to disclose specific details.

Thesis, founded in 2013, has built several Bitcoin-focused projects, including Mezo, Acre, tBTC and Fold, which recently announced its plans to go public. Thesis currently employs about 40 people and recently hired former Binance executive Kathy Zhu as its head of the Asia-Pacific region, "given the growing interest in BitcoinFi in the Asia region," Luongo said.

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