Opera intends to acquire 160 million CELO to become a significant stakeholder in the Celo network

BlockBeats News, March 19th, according to CoinDesk, Nasdaq-listed browser company Opera has submitted a proposal to the Celo governance forum, seeking to convert its previous cash transaction to a distribution of 160 million CELO tokens. Once approved by token holders, Opera will become a significant stakeholder in the Celo network.

Regarding the scale of the proposal, the 160 million CELO tokens account for approximately 27% of the current circulating supply (about 600 million tokens) and 16% of the total maximum supply (1 billion tokens). These tokens will be transferred in a "one-time transfer" from the unreleased Treasury to Opera's controlled Safe wallet. To maintain governance balance, the proposal specifies that the voting power of these tokens is "capped at 10% of the total staked CELO," excluding protocol emergency situations. CELO is currently priced at around $0.07, significantly down from its peak of over $6 at the end of 2021.

In terms of background, Opera operates the self-custodial crypto wallet MiniPay built on top of Celo—a Layer 2 Ethereum network designed for low-cost payments. MiniPay enables users to send stablecoins using phone numbers and supports local payment methods in multiple countries, including Argentina and Brazil. Since its launch in 2023, MiniPay has accumulated over 14 million registered users in more than 66 countries and processed over 420 million transactions.