I've been following the @MezoNetwork project for a long time, and with mainnet coming live in May, I've taken a closer look at Mezo's product mechanics. In a word, Mezo is a BTCFi platform that allows users to stake Bitcoin and mint stablecoins $MUSD for DeFi lending, consumer payments, savings and interest-earning. Technically, Mezo combines Bitcoin-native technology with the Proof of HODL mechanism to build a bank-free financial sovereign ecosystem, just like the slogan on Mezo's official website says "Bank on yourself", so that each Bitcoiner can become its own central bank governor. This allows users to release more liquidity without having to sell BTC. Mezo's testnet was launched in 2024 and currently has a TVL of over $168 million, including 1,566 BTC and some stablecoins. The team behind Mezo is Thesis, which has previously launched products such as tBTC and Fold, and has extensive experience developing DeFi projects around BTC. Last year, Mezo received two rounds of investment totaling more than $28 million, including Pantera Capital, Hack VC, Multicoin, and other well-known institutions. The Mezo mainnet will go live in May, with a date yet to be decided, so stay tuned. Stablecoin MUSD MUSD, a permissionless, 100% BTC-backed stablecoin that can be minted by anyone, is Mezo's core product and an important tool for enabling BTCFi. It allows users to unlock more liquidity without having to sell BTC. ◦ How to get MUSD: Mortgage BTC to directly mint (borrow) MUSD, buy MUSD through DEX ◦ MUSD application scenarios: payment, DeFi, savings, depositing in the vault to obtain income, etc ◦ MUSD Revenue Sources: Liquidity pool fees of Mezo's native DEX, interest rates on MUSD passive savings, etc How do I get involved with Mezo? With the mainnet launch as the dividing line, there are two ways for users to participate in Mezo: ◦ Before the mainnet launch: Starting from May 7th, you can deposit BTC / tBTC / wBTC / cbBTC and other assets into Mezo's "pre-launch" vault in advance to earn Mezo ecosystem points mats (which are Mezo's TGE points 👀). When the Mezo mainnet goes live in May, these funds will also be automatically bridged to separate vaults on the Mezo mainnet. It can be used to mint stablecoin MUSD, or to provide liquidity for Mezo's native DEX to earn Yield. ◦ After mainnet launch: Once the Mezo mainnet is live, users can mint stablecoin MUSD and participate in a series of application scenarios mentioned above. When these application scenarios unfold, this is what BTCFi really looks like. Although the short-term BTC ecosystem is a little lonely, the entire industry still keeps a high level of attention to this track, for no other reason than because there will always be more projects salivating 🤤 over BTC's huge liquidity and wanting to leverage and unlock this massive liquidity. Lending and stablecoins that use BTC as collateral will definitely have big projects coming out.