Opera, the Nasdaq-listed browser company, has proposed changing how it’s paid by the Celo ecosystem — asking to receive native CELO tokens instead of US dollar-denominated quarterly cash payments. The proposal would rework its commercial agreement to allocate 160 million CELO tokens to Opera, subject to approval by Celo’s onchain governance community.
If approved, the move would align Opera’s financial incentives with Celo’s network performance and make Opera one of the largest institutional CELO holders. Celo is an Ethereum-aligned, mobile-first protocol focused on payments and stablecoin transfers in emerging markets; it moved from a standalone layer-1 to an Ethereum layer-2 last year.
Opera said the proposal reflects its “belief in the long-term value” of the Celo ecosystem. The companies have collaborated since 2021, when Opera added Celo-native stablecoins to its browser wallet. Their partnership has increasingly centered on Opera’s MiniPay wallet, a self-custodial app built on Celo that Opera says has grown to 14 million users and concentrates on stablecoin payments in emerging markets. In November, MiniPay initiated connections with Latin American real-time payment platforms PIX and Mercado Pago.
Other blockchain-native firms similarly hold protocol tokens tied to their work — for example, ConsenSys has exposure to Ether through core infrastructure like MetaMask, and Blockstream holds Bitcoin while building services around that network.
Opera’s deeper Celo integration comes as the company reports stronger-than-expected financial results. In February, Opera reported fourth-quarter revenue of $177.2 million, up 22% year-over-year, with adjusted earnings of $41.9 million (a 24% margin). Full-year revenue reached $614.8 million, with adjusted earnings of $142.5 million. The company also announced a $300 million share repurchase program. Opera’s Nasdaq-listed shares are up more than 21% over the past month, trading at about $15 per share and giving the company a market capitalization near $1.3 billion.
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