The institutional sector's interest in generating revenue from bitcoin holdings is gaining momentum, with finance platform Mezo announcing its entry into the market with a product designed to help institutions earn yield on their bitcoin assets. Mezo Prime is launching segregated vaults, known as Enclaves, which will enable institutions to earn yield on bitcoin held in custody with Anchorage Digital Bank. This development reflects a change in how institutions perceive bitcoin, transitioning from a passive store of value to a capital-generating asset. The emergence of bitcoin-native yield infrastructure, such as Rootstock and Babylon, has driven this shift by enabling BTC to be utilized in lending, collateralized borrowing, and other financial strategies within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Mezo's Enclaves are designed to address institutional concerns around asset segregation, reporting, and risk controls, which have historically limited participation in crypto lending and decentralized finance. The project has received 250 BTC ($19.4 million) in funding from Bullish, a digital-asset firm and CoinDesk's parent company, which is also among the first users of the product. Bitcoin deposited into the vaults can be locked to earn protocol fees or used as collateral to borrow MUSD, a bitcoin-backed stablecoin, without being rehypothecated. While institutional adoption of these products is still in its early stages and yields are relatively low compared to other crypto assets, Mezo's initiative demonstrates that institutions are starting to view bitcoin as a productive financial asset rather than just a digital equivalent of gold.