Celo cenaCelo · CELO

Founded in 2017 by Rene Reinsberg, Marek Olszewski, and Sep Kamvar, and launched on 22/04/2020 by a team based in San Francisco, California and Berlin, Germany, Celo is the leading programmable rails for global finance and the most widely adopted blockchain for stablecoin payments, aiming to make stablecoin payments and everyday financial transactions accessible to users worldwide, including those transacting in local currencies. Celo's initial backers include Reid Hoffman, Jack Dorsey, a16z, Polychain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Electric Capital, Dragonfly Capital, and more. As a blockchain network built for the real world, Celo has processed 1.45B+ lifetime transactions, reaching a peak of 840K daily active users, while maintaining one-second blocks and sub-cent fees. Celo is also the #1 transport layer for Tether USD₮ (6M weekly active users), and home to MiniPay, Opera's (NASDAQ: OPRA) stablecoin wallet serving 20M+ users across 66+ countries. To date, there are 120.3M CELO token holders, putting CELO among the Top 10 assets by distribution. CELO is the network's native utility and governance token, with a fixed maximum supply of 1 billion. Under CELOccelerate, approved by onchain governance in April 2026, revenue Celo earns in assets like USD₮ and USDC is programmatically used to buy back CELO, and net revenue flows to the DAO-governed Community Fund, which has proposed burning it. More than 8.5M CELO have been bought back since April 2026. CELO holders propose and vote on all protocol changes onchain. The Celo ecosystem consists of a proof-of-stake blockchain technology stack, the CELO native token, 33 stablecoins representing 20 currencies including USDC, USD₮, and USA₮ (all enabled as gas currencies) and several Mento stable assets (USDm, EURm, BRLm, XOFm, and more), along with XAUt0 (also gas-enabled) and infrastructure partners including Aave, Uniswap V3 and V4, Morpho, Curve, Velodrome, Self, Google Cloud, RedStone and Chainlink. Launched on Earth Day in 2020, the open-source Celo mainnet supports an ecosystem of 1,000+ projects contributing to Celo's global mission of prosperity for all. For more about Celo, visit celo.org.

Who are the founders of Celo?

Celo was co-founded in 2017 by Rene Reinsberg, Chair of Celo Core Co.; Marek Olszewski, current CEO of Celo Core Co.; and Sep Kamvar, computer scientist, artist, and former professor at MIT Media Lab.

What Makes Celo Unique?

Celo's Ethereum Layer-2 stack combines the OP Stack for execution, EigenDA v2 for data availability, and Ethereum for settlement. On top of that, governable core contracts handle governance, attestations, stable tokens, exchange, and price oracles, with an application layer built specifically for user-facing financial products and mobile access. In December 2025, Celo activated OP Succinct Lite, a zero-knowledge fraud-proof system built on Succinct's SP1 zkVM: when a posted state root is challenged, the proposer submits a ZK proof to resolve the dispute, instead of needing to prove every transition by default. Celo keeps one-second blocks and sub-cent fees, secured by Ethereum. A core tenet of network design is accessibility: transaction fees on Celo can be paid directly in stablecoins, including USDC, USD₮, USA₮, and Mento's local-currency stable assets, as well as XAUt0, alongside CELO itself. A user transacting in a stablecoin does not need to hold a second asset just to pay for gas, which lowers the barrier for everyday users and merchants who already operate in dollars or local currency, and is a core reason Celo, bolstered by Opera (NASDAQ: OPRA)'s self-custodial global stablecoin wallet MiniPay, has expanded its reach for stablecoin payments in emerging markets. Celo also supports agentic payments. Celo Core Co.'s native facilitator supports both the x402 and MPP protocols, and Celo supports local-currency agentic payments, with Ripio's wARS, wBRL, and wCOP (Argentine Peso, Brazilian Real, and Colombian Peso) live on the facilitator as of September 2026. Governance runs entirely onchain: CELO holders propose and vote directly through the Celo Governance smart contract, with 300+ Celo Governance Proposals (CGPs) discussed and voted on through the Celo Forum and Governance Calls to date. To go deeper on Celo's architecture, visit docs.celo.org.

How Many Celo (CELO) Coins Are There in Circulation?

CELO token has a fixed supply of one billion.

How Is the Celo Network Secured?

Celo's security model evolved when the network migrated from a standalone proof-of-stake Layer 1 to an Ethereum Layer 2. Celo now settles on Ethereum, uses EigenDA v2 for data availability, and runs on the OP Stack. In December 2025, Celo activated OP Succinct Lite, a zero-knowledge fraud-proof system built on Succinct's SP1 zkVM: when a posted state root is challenged, the proposer submits a ZK proof to resolve the dispute, rather than proving every transition by default. A Security Council on Ethereum adds a further layer of protection, handling urgent security hotfixes, L1 contract upgrades for the L2, and role designations for sequencers, proposers, and challengers, and administering the native Ethereum-to-Celo bridge. It's a 2-of-2 multisig split between a 6-of-8 multisig governed by Celo Core Co. and a 6-of-8 multisig governed entirely by an independent Celo Community Security Council, with Celo's roadmap targeting Stage 2 L2 status, where the Council's role narrows to resolving disagreements between L2 clients arising from bugs. CELO holders govern the network through onchain governance: protocol changes move through the Governance smart contract via Proposal, Referendum, and Execution phases. Locked CELO holders also vote for elected community RPC providers, who earn epoch rewards for that role alongside the Community Fund. This RPC election system, which Celo's own disclosures still label a delegated proof-of-stake model, is a reward and infrastructure mechanism, not block production or consensus security.

Where Can You Buy Celo (CELO)?

CELO can be purchased with fiat on Binance, Kraken, Coinbase (where it's listed as CGLD), Upbit, KuCoin, Bybit, OKX and other exchanges. Celo can also be purchased via global onramps, such as MiniPay via Squid's "Buy CELO" app, MoonPay, Ramp Network and Simplex/Nuvei.