Opera Walks Away from Cash - Toward CELO

Opera, the company behind the browser, has asked the developers of the Celo blockchain for 27% of the circulating supply of CELO tokens. That’s a highly unusual move. Let’s break it down to understand what makes it so unusual.

Opera comes in several versions, and the lightest one is Opera Mini, designed for low-end mobile devices. Like other versions of the browser, it includes a built-in crypto wallet. But this particular wallet - MiniPay - works with only one blockchain: Celo. In return, Opera has been receiving regular fiat payments from the Celo developers.

And now, unexpectedly, Opera is willing to give up that fiat and instead asks for the blockchain’s native tokens. Which suggests that, at this point, CELO tokens are more interesting to Opera than money itself. So what exactly do they see in them?

According to CoinDesk, the decision is tied to the success of MiniPay. Opera sees millions of users and hundreds of millions of transactions flowing through it. That implies real traction - and real potential - for both the blockchain and its native token.

At a time when institutional capital has been flowing out of major cryptocurrencies, this story feels unexpectedly optimistic. It suggests that there are still crypto projects that people genuinely use - and not just niche users, but a broader, more mainstream audience.

And one more thing: CELO is available for exchange at the best rates on Rabbit.io - no registration, no limits. (So, Opera, if Celo turns you down and you happen to hold any other crypto, you can always swap it for CELO with us.)