Cryptocurrency exchange Bullish has invested in Mezo,
the company behind a new financial platform that offers institutional investors a secure way to earn yield and access lending against their Bitcoin holdings, Investing.com has learned.
Bullish, the parent company of Peter Thiel-backed crypto news and information provider CoinDesk, has invested 250 Bitcoin—or approximately $19.2 million—in Mezo.
A portion of Bullish's corporate Bitcoin treasury will also be held through the platform, dubbed Mezo Prime, while remaining within its custody and compliance infrastructure.
Mezo Prime is designed to offer institutional investors isolated digital Bitcoin storage, without the commingling of assets between accounts, according to Mezo. When clients lock their Bitcoin on Mezo Prime for a specified period, they will receive assets entitling them to a share of the interest paid, as well as trading and bridge fees on the platform.
These assets can also be used as collateral to borrow the Bitcoin-based stablecoin Mezo, which aims to remain pegged to the US dollar.
Mezo Prime is now available to clients of Anchorage Digital Bank, which specializes in providing cryptocurrency-related banking services to institutional clients.
In an interview with Investing.com, Mezo CEO Matt Luongo said the company is currently in discussions with other institutional investors.
"The way Mezo works is that every new institution that deposits creates more protocol activity, which generates more fees for everyone in the system. The flywheel effect is amplified. We designed Prime so that the 100th institution benefits from the first 99," Luongo added.
Bullish shares have risen approximately 1% since the beginning of this year. The group's recent offering was part of a wave of crypto industry offerings, including names like online trading platform Etoro and stablecoin issuer Circle. Cryptocurrency company Galaxy Digital also transferred its listing to Nasdaq from the Toronto Stock Exchange in May, while Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, completed its initial public offering in September.
Bullish launched with initial investment from Founders Fund and Thiel Capital, as well as separate backing from Nomura and Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz.