Opera has proposed swapping its cash grant from Celo for a large CELO token stake — a move that would instantly make the browser company a major holder on the payments-focused network if token holders sign off.
What’s being proposed
- Opera submitted a governance proposal on Celo to replace a quarterly U.S. dollar grant with a one-time, three-year award of 160 million CELO.
- The tokens would come from Celo’s unreleased treasury and be transferred to an Opera-controlled Safe. Opera’s voting power from those tokens would be limited to 10% of total staked CELO (with an exception for protocol emergencies).
Why it matters
- Using CoinMarketCap’s figure of roughly 600 million CELO currently in circulation, 160 million CELO equals about 27% of the circulating supply and roughly 16% of CELO’s 1 billion maximum supply. That scale would position Opera as a clear, long-term stakeholder in the Celo ecosystem — subject, of course, to governance approval.
- At the time of writing CELO trades around $0.07, far below its late-2021 highs above $6.
Opera’s rationale
- Opera says the change better aligns incentives given MiniPay, the browser maker’s self-custodial crypto wallet, is now Celo’s most-used app. MiniPay runs on Celo (an Ethereum layer-2 designed for low-cost payments), enables users to hold their own funds, send stablecoins using phone numbers rather than wallet addresses, and pay with local methods in countries such as Argentina and Brazil.
- Jorgen Arnesen, Opera’s EVP, told CoinDesk the token allocation “reflect[s] the scale and maturity of the partnership and Opera’s genuine belief in and commitment to the long-term value of the Celo ecosystem.”
On-chain traction and user reach
- Opera and Celo say MiniPay has logged more than 14 million registrations and over 420 million transactions across 66+ countries since its 2023 launch.
- They also note that over 50 million Opera browser users who recently earned rewards can now redeem them as USDT inside MiniPay.
Market context
- The proposed token transfer would convert an ongoing cash relationship into a substantial on-chain stake, raising governance and concentration questions that Celo voters will weigh.
- Opera’s U.S.-listed shares were trading at about $14.60, down roughly 1.2% in the most recent session.
Next steps
- The proposal must pass Celo’s governance process before the transfer happens. If approved, Opera would formally shift from a cash-grant partner to one of the network’s largest CELO stakeholders.
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