Users in Europe and the US can now buy stablecoins in seconds with a card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay through the Link by Stripe checkout trusted by more than 300 million people.

MiniPay, the self-custodial stablecoin wallet with more than 20 million activations on Celo now supports deposits with Stripe, as the first step in a wider collaboration. Starting in the European Union and the United States, users can log in with Link, Stripe’s one-click checkout, and pay with a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. The stablecoins go straight into their own MiniPay wallet, where they can hold them, send them internationally or spend them at over 175 million merchants with the MiniPay Card.

Adding stablecoins, now with a familiar checkout experience

For most people, the hardest part of using stablecoins is getting money in to begin with. Buying stablecoins usually means signing up for an exchange, uploading ID documents and waiting for a bank transfer to clear. With Stripe in MiniPay, people can now add money the same way they already pay online. More than 300 million people have saved their payment details with Link, so they can log in, choose a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, and top up their MiniPay wallet in seconds, without typing in card details. Stripe asks for extra verification only when it is required. The money arrives as stablecoins, and can be spent, saved, or sent through MiniPay and used across its ecosystem of 77+ Mini Apps.

Stripe sits alongside the other deposit options MiniPay already offers in Europe and the US, and MiniPay shows each user the options and rates available where they live. Users in the EU who have a MiniPay Card, launched with Visa and Gnosis Pay in June 2026, can then spend with stablecoins on Celo anywhere Visa is accepted.

“Adding money is the moment when people are most likely to give up on stablecoins,” said Jørgen Arnesen, EVP Mobile at Opera. “Most of us already pay online with Link, Apple Pay or Google Pay without thinking twice, and now people in Europe and the US can add money to MiniPay in exactly the same way. We built MiniPay for users who manage their money on their phones, and we see that need in Western markets just as clearly as anywhere else. Stripe makes it easier for people to get started, and we’re excited about what comes next in our partnership.”

MiniPay’s momentum extends to Western markets

MiniPay launched in 2023 inside the Opera Mini browser and proved that phone-first stablecoins work, starting in Africa. It has since grown to more than 20 million wallet activations, double the total from just over a year ago, with over 600 million transactions across 70+ countries and 77 Mini Apps. User growth has also picked up significantly in Western markets, with Europe and the US markets as the next priority markets for growth.

MiniPay runs on Celo, the most widely adopted blockchain for stablecoin payments, reaching more than 450,000 active addresses daily. Since network fees on Celo can be paid in stablecoins, MiniPay users can transact in stablecoins without holding a second asset, eliminating a barrier to first-time stablecoin users. Bridge, Stripe’s stablecoin orchestration platform, first introduced Celo support in May.

“Stripe has simplified online payments for hundreds of millions. We’re proud to bring that infrastructure to Celo, advancing our work with Opera to make financial tools affordable and effective for local markets throughout the world,” said Rene Reinsberg, Celo co-founder. “MiniPay was designed for ease of use since the start, now adding Link makes the experience even more intuitive.”

Deposits with Link by Stripe are rolling out to MiniPay users in the EU and in the US on the latest version of MiniPay for Android and iOS. Stripe is available for deposits only.

MiniPay users in Europe and the US can now buy stablecoins on Celo using Link by Stripe was originally published in The Celo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Celo’s AI infrastructure stack optimized for global currencies expands further, with local stablecoin payments for agents in Nigeria, Mexico, Chile, and Peru

Today, Celo Core Co. announced the expansion of x402/Celo to include support for cNGN, the regulated Nigerian Naira stablecoin issued by WrappedCBDC Limited, as well as three Latin American local currencies, wMXN, wCLP, and wPEN (Mexican Peso, Chilean Peso, and Peruvian Sol), issued by Ripio, the leading crypto infrastructure and digital finance platform in Latin America.

Celo’s native x402 facilitator now supports 10 stablecoins, with the latest additions joining three US Dollar-denominated stablecoins (USDC, USD₮, and USA₮) as well as Argentine Pesos, Brazilian Reais, and Colombian Pesos (wARS, wBRL, wCOP). Celo is the first and only network to support native agentic payments for USA₮, the stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., as well as Ripio’s wFIAT stablecoins and cNGN.

Celo is the home of stablecoins with 33 assets representing 20 currencies, and the network’s agentic infrastructure has been built to reflect this global approach. Humans and their agents alike can leverage the benefits of onchain local currency payments, with fast, low-cost transactions and reduced FX friction.

Celo Core Co. launched the native x402/Celo facilitator in July with support for USDC and USD₮, added Ripio’s wARS, wBRL, and wCOP in September to become the first chain to support local currency agentic payments, and brought USA₮ online days later. Today’s additions further expand local currency support, live on the updated x402/Celo facilitator with a streamlined user experience.

“Supporting the Naira and completing Ripio’s wFIAT stack means an agent on Celo can settle in its owner’s own currency across Latin America and now Nigeria too,” said Lena Hierzi, Developer Relations Lead, Celo Core Co. “We know that stablecoins are the currency of AI agents, and are working to build solutions that represent the humans behind agents across our global community.”

“The Celo ecosystem has a clear vision for its agentic and onchain FX strategy, and Ripio is proud to accelerate its growth throughout Latin America,” said Sebastian Serrano, CEO, Ripio. “Now that all six wFIAT currencies work natively on Celo for agentic payments, builders in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru can deploy agents without running into FX friction.”

“Nigeria is home to one of the strongest builder communities in crypto, and AI agents are the next thing they’ll build for, our team have made cNGN Agentic payment ready with MCP,” said Charles Okaformbah, Managing Director, WrappedCBDC Limited. “Payments here happen in naira, so agents acting for Nigerian people and businesses should be able to pay in naira too. cNGN is built to move across multiple networks, and Celo’s x402 facilitator opens up a new use for it: agents that can make payments in naira, the currency their users already earn and spend.”

The expansion follows a run of new agent tooling across the Celo ecosystem. Celo Core Co. launched buy on October 13, a marketplace where an agent can shop for 700+ services, including compute, data, and API access, and pay directly from its wallet in USDC, USD₮, or USA₮. Just two days later, Self, a frontier identity and agentic solutions lab born out of the Celo ecosystem, launched Agent Vault. Agent Vault is a payment and login layer for AI agents to sign in and complete purchases on a human’s behalf without ever seeing or storing their information.

For more on how Celo’s agentic economy lets every agent transact in its owner’s own currency, visit x402.celo.org and docs.celo.org to start building.

About Celo

Celo is the leading programmable rails for global finance, and the most widely adopted blockchain for stablecoin payments. The Celo ecosystem consists of a decentralized, proof-of-stake blockchain technology stack, the CELO native token, USDC, USD₮, and USA₮ (all enabled as gas currencies), among 33 stablecoins in total representing 20 global currencies. Celo supports popular infrastructure including Aave, Uniswap V3 and V4, Morpho, Curve, Self, and Chainlink. Launched on Earth Day in 2020, the open-source Celo mainnet supports a rich ecosystem of 1,000+ projects contributing to Celo’s global mission of prosperity for all. For more about Celo, visit celo.org.

About cNGN

cNGN (Compliant Naira) is a naira stablecoin issued by WrappedCBDC Limited, backed 1:1 by naira reserves and live on nine networks. Reserve attestations and audit reports are published at cngn.co/transparency. cNGN operates under the SEC Nigeria Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP). Learn more at cngn.co.

About Ripio

Founded in 2013, Ripio is one of Latin America’s pioneering crypto companies, having operated through every market cycle since. Through Ripio Business, it provides crypto infrastructure — custody, liquidity, on/off-ramps and local-currency stablecoins — to banks, fintechs, exchanges, wallets and blockchains across the region. Its wFIAT suite (wARS, wBRL, wMXN, wCOP, wCLP and wPEN) brings six Latin American currencies onchain at 1:1 parity, issued by a Ripio group affiliate and backed by reserves verified through third-party attestations. Ripio holds SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2 and CCSS Level 3 certifications, and is the only company in Latin America with CCSS Level 3. Across its consumer and business products, it has reached more than 40 million users.

Celo’s x402 Facilitator Completes Ripio’s wFIAT Stack and Adds cNGN, Enabling Agentic Payments… was originally published in The Celo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Agents on Celo can autonomously pay for 700+ services using USD₮, USA₮, and USDC

Agents are gaining autonomy, operating on behalf of their users to research, develop, transact, and even manage multi-currency FX. Until now, agents could not independently pay all for the tools necessary to complete assigned tasks in one place. Humans were responsible for sourcing API keys for anything their agent needed, from pulling social media data to compute credits and storage. That is why Celo Core Co. today is launching buy, a services marketplace for agents on the leading programmable rails for global finance.

buy is the online marketplace where agents shop for themselves. An agent can ask for a service, receive a price quote, and pay for it directly from its own wallet, all without a human creating an account, copying an API key, or keeping a subscription current. Agents pay in USDC, USD₮, or USA₮ for more than 700 services spanning compute, data, and APIs, with Chainstack, Cencori, and SQD live on the marketplace at launch.

buy runs on Celo, one of the most widely adopted networks in all of crypto with 450K+ Daily Active Users, built for fast, sub-cent transactions that work as well for agents as they do for people. Where a human still reaches for a credit card or a bank transfer, an agent on Celo can do so within seconds using the stablecoin its owner already holds, which turns every listing in buy’s catalogue into something an agent can buy on its own.

“Agents have been held back because most tools are built for humans: accounts, API keys, subscriptions,” said Lena Hierzi, Celo Core Co. Developer Relations Lead. “buy removes those steps by letting agents pay per request in stablecoins on Celo, which makes them assistants that can act instead of just suggest”

Not every service on buy can operate on trust alone. Some need confirmation that a real person is accountable for the agent making the request, which is why buy integrates Self, the privacy-first proof-of-human and identity layer for the agentic web. Self binds an agent’s signing key to a zero-knowledge proof that one real, unique human stands behind it. buy uses that check on buy to gate Google Cloud’s largest machines, renting them only to agents that can present a Self proof confirming a real, verified adult is behind the request.

buy adds to a growing stack of agentic tooling Celo Core Co. has built out this year, alongside AskBots, where AI agents review builders’ work for pay, and Celo’s native facilitator at x402.celo.org, which settles both x402 and MPP payments. That facilitator was the first to support local currency agentic payments, settling Ripio’s Argentine Peso, Brazilian Real, and Colombian Peso stablecoins (wARS, wBRL, and wCOP), and the first to bring USA₮ to x402 payments as well, with Ripio’s Mexican Peso, Chilean Peso, and Peruvian Sol stablecoins (wMXN, wCLP, and wPEN) next to be added.

Developers can add buy to an agent’s existing toolchain with a single install into Claude Code or Codex, and the agent can browse the full catalogue the moment it is set up: npm i -g @celo/buy.

Visit usebuy.ai to get started, or explore the full catalogue of services and launch partners there.

Celo Core Co. Launches buy, the Services Marketplace for Agents was originally published in The Celo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Agents on Celo can now pay with the US Dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorage and supported by Tether, the sixth stablecoin supported by x402.celo.org

Celo Core Co.’s native x402 facilitator now enables agentic payments using USA₮, the US Dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. and supported by Tether. The addition comes just days after Celo became the first chain to support local currency agentic payments with Ripio’s Argentine Peso, Brazilian Real, and Colombian Peso stablecoins (wARS, wBRL, and wCOP). USA₮ is the third US Dollar-backed stablecoin accepted by Celo’s x402 facilitator, joining Tether’s USD₮ and Circle’s USDC.

Since the asset launched on July 29th, Celo has become the second chain to host native mint and burn and the first to enable USA₮ as gas, so anyone holding USA₮ on Celo can pay network fees in the same stablecoin they transact in. With the facilitator’s expanded support, Celo is now also the first chain offering USA₮ support for x402 payments, giving agents a US Dollar-backed stablecoin that settles natively on Celo when paying for APIs, data, and services across the internet.

Celo’s onchain economy is built for humans and agents alike, offering fast, sub-cent stablecoin transactions and payments. From launching the onchain Brazilian Real in 2022 to hosting 33+ stablecoins representing 20 currencies today, Celo’s robust stablecoin economy powers onchain FX, remittances, DeFi, and cross-border payments globally. The x402 facilitator carries that same economy through to agents, allowing an agent to transact in the currency its owner already holds, whether in US Dollars through USA₮, USD₮, and USDC or Argentine Pesos, Brazilian Reais, and Colombian Pesos through Ripio’s wFIAT stablecoins.

“We’re building the infrastructure to bring Celo’s core technical advantages to the agentic economy, and becoming the first network with USA₮ x402 payments is the next milestone in that work,” said Lena Hierzi, Celo Core Co. Developer Relations Lead. “Builders across Celo’s global community are using AI infrastructure to power stablecoin applications from onchain FX and payments to remittances and DeFi, and adding seamless agentic USA₮ payments was critical to ensuring they have the tools they need to scale. We’ll keep enhancing our AI tooling to meet growing developer demand.”

Google Cloud’s USA₮ Mainnet Faucet has distributed free Celo-native USA₮ to over 15,000 verified humans to date, using privacy-first identity protocol Self to verify eligibility without compromising privacy. To claim, users prove they are 18 or older and a resident of an eligible country using an NFC-enabled passport or ID card, or Aadhaar, and with Self’s zero-knowledge technology, the underlying personal data is never stored or shared. This faucet is live today: real, eligible people can claim their USA₮ to get their agent started on Celo’s x402 facilitator.

The x402 facilitator’s asset roster continues to grow, with Ripio’s Mexican Peso, Chilean Peso, and Peruvian Sol stablecoins (wMXN, wCLP, and wPEN) next to be added. Developers can see the live asset list, including the exact signing domain each token needs, at x402.celo.org, or point an agent straight at x402.celo.org/skill.md for the full integration guide.

To learn more about the x402 facilitator and how Celo’s agentic economy is built to let every agent transact in its owner’s currency, visit x402.celo.org and docs.celo.org to start building.

USA₮ Agentic Payments Are Now Live on Celo’s Native x402 Facilitator was originally published in The Celo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Agents holding Argentine Pesos, Brazilian Reais, and Colombian Pesos can now pay without conversion, reducing FX friction on both ends of agentic commerce

On July 16th, Celo Core Co. launched the native Celo x402 facilitator, strengthening one of the fastest-growing agentic ecosystems in crypto with support for stablecoin-based agentic payments. Celo’s robust stablecoin ecosystem is home to 20 currencies across 33 stablecoins, including Ripio’s wFIAT assets backed by the Argentine Peso, Brazilian Real, Mexican Peso, Colombian Peso, Chilean Peso, and Peruvian Sol. Now, agents on Celo can leverage the benefits of local currency payments through the native x402 facilitator’s support for wARS, wBRL, and wCOP.

Stablecoins are the currency of AI agents, benefiting from fast, low-cost settlement and seamless payments across the internet. Most agentic payments have to date been made in US Dollar-denominated stablecoins, but a lack of local currency support is limiting the benefits for users globally. As people increasingly deploy agents to transact on their behalf, they need to ensure those agents do not expose them to FX risk. They will also want to set budgets for their agent that fit within their broader financial situation, which is most easily achieved when their agent is operating in the same currency as its owner.

That is why Celo is the first chain to support local digital currency agentic payments, with Celo Core Co. adding support for three wFIAT currencies to its x402 facilitator. There is no conversion necessary for the user or their agent in Argentina, Brazil, or Colombia. An agent holding pesos or reais can simply execute payment, and its owner does not face swap-related costs. The same applies on the other end of the transaction, with businesses and developers across all three countries able to charge agents for their services, data, and APIs in pesos or reais, keeping the revenue they earn in the same currency as the costs they pay.

“Celo’s agentic economy, just like our broader ecosystem, is driven by real activity across the world. As we build the tools to power everyday use cases with AI for our global community, we’re committed to meeting users where they are,” said Lena Hierzi, Celo Core Co. Developer Relations Lead. “That’s exactly why our team continues to scale stablecoin use cases and bring everyday users onchain. It’s also why we have enhanced our x402 facilitator to integrate Ripio’s wFIAT currencies, with wARS, wBRL, and wCOP , with wMXN, wCLP, and wPEN in the pipeline.”

Since its mainnet launch on Earth Day 2020, Celo’s global ecosystem has grown to become the most widely adopted network for stablecoin payments, with remittances, commerce, and DeFi use cases driving over 1.4B transactions. The convergence of stablecoins and AI is picking up speed, driven by infrastructure unlocking increased utility for agents to pay on users’ behalf and innovation to bridge the global agentic web. wFIAT support is just the first of many local currency additions to come, with more of the 20 currencies on Celo soon to come.

Developers can see the live asset list, including the exact signing domain each token needs, at x402.celo.org, or point an agent straight at x402.celo.org/skill.md for the full integration guide.

For more information, visit x402.celo.org and docs.celo.org to start building.

Celo Becomes the First Chain to Support Local Currency Agentic Payments with Ripio’s wARS, wBRL… was originally published in The Celo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

IDRX is the 20th Currency and 33rd Stablecoin to Launch on the Leading Network for Stablecoin Adoption, with $6.2B in Monthly Volume and 500K Daily Active Users

Today, the leading fiat-backed Indonesian Rupiah stablecoin IDRX, issued by PT IDRX Indo Inovasi, launched on Celo, the most widely adopted network for stablecoin payments. IDRX marks the 20th global currency tokenized on Celo and the 33rd stablecoin live on the network. Celo’s network is connecting global money to local users at scale, surpassing 450K Daily Active Users (DAUs) through a robust ecosystem of payments, onchain FX trading, remittances, and DeFi solutions.

IDRX is backed 1:1 by Rupiah-denominated reserves, held as fiat and Indonesian government bonds at regulated financial institutions, with reserve documentation published by the issuer and audited by independent third parties.

Crosschain FX liquidity network Textile FX, born out of the Celo ecosystem, is a day one partner, offering IDRX trades against Tether’s USD₮ with institutional liquidity led by Tribeca Park Capital. Textile FX now supports ten assets on Celo, and last week cleared a new all-time high daily volume of $328K in onchain FX on the network.

The 1:1-backed Rupiah stablecoin follows cNGN, the Naira stablecoin regulated by Nigeria’s SEC, USA₮, the US Dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and supported by Tether, and Ripio’s wFIAT stack, which brought Argentine Peso, Brazilian Real, Mexican Peso, Colombian Peso, Chilean Peso, and Peruvian Sol stablecoins to Celo.

“IDRX is further strengthening Celo’s onchain economy, bringing users in Indonesia and throughout the world access to fast, low-cost, always-on FX markets and global payments,” said Dr. Markus Franke, Celo Core Co. Global Head of Stablecoins. “Bringing the world’s money onchain is what opens new trade corridors with fewer intermediaries, reduces the currency risk inside them, and makes use cases like lending in local currency possible. IDRX and Textile are both building that in Indonesia today.”

“Since launching IDRX, we’ve focused on building a Rupiah that fits the local context, so Indonesians can transact and save in their own currency instead of a foreign one,” said Nathanael Christian, Chief Executive Officer at IDRX. “Celo gives that Rupiah a real FX market. With Textile FX quoting IDRX against the dollar from day one, and stablecoins for nineteen other currencies already live on the network, our users and partners can move between the Rupiah and the rest of the world without leaving the chain.”

“The onchain Indonesian Rupiah deepens our network of stablecoins, adding another trusted, fiat-backed currency to a platform already serving hundreds of OTC desks and moving global currencies at scale,” said Tomer Bariach, Textile founder and CEO. “Working with IDRX and Celo Core Co. opens Indonesia to the desks already trading across our network, connecting Rupiah flows to the same liquidity we run between currencies in every market we serve.”

IDRX’s launch on Celo follows its existing traction on the Lisk network, an Ethereum Layer 2 that announced plans to deprecate last month and will shut down on October 31. In the announcement, Lisk recommended Celo as the new home for its ecosystem of founders throughout the Global South, working with Celo Core Co. directly to develop a migration path that best serves the future of its community.

Bringing the Rupiah onchain gives users in Indonesia low-cost settlement into Celo’s global community, connecting a mature payments-optimized ecosystem with an economy whose largest export markets include China, the United States, and Japan, and with $17.6 billion in remittance inflow in 2025.

Indonesia’s existing onchain activity is a clear indicator of the potential for accelerated growth of IDRX on Celo. Indonesia ranks seventh worldwide in Chainalysis’ 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index and fourth in value received by DeFi protocols, with retail and institutional activity both in the global top ten.

Developers can integrate Celo-native IDRX into their existing applications or build new applications with the rupiah stablecoin today. Visit docs.celo.org to get started.

Explore Textile’s onchain FX solutions with IDRX on Celo: https://app.textilecredit.com/s/swap?sell=IDRX&buy=USDT&chainId=42220&amount=18000

Fiat-Backed, Regulated Indonesian Rupiah Stablecoin, IDRX, Deploys on Celo with Textile FX… was originally published in The Celo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Two weeks ago, Self and Google Cloud’s USA₮ Mainnet Faucet launched on Celo, bringing free stablecoins to real, verified humans worldwide. Following early user traction, the teams have increased USA₮ distribution to $10.

Users who have already completed the verification process through the Mainnet Faucet: check your Celo wallet for a surprise.

How It Works:

• Visit Google Cloud’s Mainnet Faucet portal
• Connect your Celo wallet (Ledger, Valora, MetaMask, Rabby) to the USA₮ Mainnet Faucet
• Verify your identity with Self, using your biometric passport, ID Card, Aadhaar, or other eligible government-issued identification. Self uses zero-knowledge technology to generate a proof that you are eligible (18+, not a resident of an OFAC-sanctioned country) without ever transmitting your raw personal data
• Once your Self Pass is verified, your wallet will immediately receive 5 USA₮ at no cost
• Send USA₮ to another Celo wallet to receive another 2 USA₮
• Hold 50+ USA₮ or more for at least 10 consecutive days to receive another 3 USA₮

The boosted USA₮ distribution follows ecosystem-wide excitement and participation, with partners across payments platforms, DeFi protocols, and exchanges working to add Celo-native USA₮ functionality. MiniPay, the self-custodial stablecoin wallet built by Opera (NASDAQ: OPRA) on Celo, will soon launch support for the stablecoin.

Celo Core Co.’s Developer Relations team is also working closely with builders to drive new innovative agentic solutions that incorporate the asset on the leading distribution network for stablecoins. The Agents at Work hackathon, live now through September 14th, offers a $750 stablecoin adoption bounty that USA₮ builders can compete for with remittance, bill payments, and onchain FX products. USA₮ is the U.S.-regulated dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., and backed by Tether.

Visit the USA₮ Mainnet Faucet to get started: https://cloud.google.com/application/web3/faucet/celo/mainnet

The First (F)air Drop is Leveling Up: 10x More USA₮ for Real, Verified Humans is Available Now was originally published in The Celo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Inco is now live on Celo testnet, the leading programmable rails for global finance. Developed by full-stack blockchain privacy layer Inco, developers and users can access a private asset layer connected to a Celo-supported wallet, where balances can be shielded, sent privately, and moved back to the public side whenever they choose.

On the most widely adopted blockchain for stablecoin payments, Inco creates new possibilities for private onchain asset activity, from shielded asset management to confidential DeFi positions. Additionally, Inco’s underlying confidential compute infrastructure can also support sealed-bid auctions, confidential governance, hidden game mechanics, and other applications that depend on encrypted data or logic.

The integration pairs Inco’s programmable privacy infrastructure with Celo’s fast, low-cost rails and ecosystem of 32+ native stablecoins. Developers can add confidential functionality to applications built on Celo without moving users or assets to a separate privacy chain.

“Privacy should be a foundational tenet of the blockchain, and we’re focused on bringing privacy-first solutions to the Celo ecosystem so neobanks and fintechs can move real financial activity onchain,” said Marek Olszewski, Celo Core Co. CEO and Celo co-founder. “Inco’s full-stack confidentiality tools fill a real gap for developers. Inco on Celo means a neobank can process payments and manage balances onchain without exposing every transaction to the world.”

“Confidentiality is the next problem blockchains need to solve, the same way scalability and interoperability did before it,” said Remi Gai, Inco Founder. “Bringing Inco to Celo made sense immediately. It’s a network that’s already shown it moves first, with years of history pioneering infrastructure the industry later embraces. This is just the beginning of what Inco and Celo build together.”

Inco expands Celo smart contracts to work with encrypted balances and confidential compute without ever decrypting them onchain.

Inco is live on Celo testnet now, with access opening through a gated beta. Developers, fintechs, wallets, and other teams interested in building with Inco can reach out at inco@celo.org

Inco Deploys on Celo, Enabling Private Payments on the Most Widely Adopted Network for Stablecoin… was originally published in The Celo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Lisk builders are invited to continue their work on Celo, a mission-aligned, technically compatible OP Stack network. Migration support is available starting today.

Today, Lisk announced they will wind down the Lisk blockchain in the coming months, and invited their ecosystem builders to migrate to Celo, the Ethereum Layer 2 built for the real world with the leading programmable rails for global finance.

Lisk’s Ethereum Layer 2 network has served as a platform for technical innovation in Emerging Markets, led by a team dedicated to supporting builders throughout Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa in creating remarkable applications on state-of-the-art infrastructure. Through incubation programs, community events, investments, and on-the-ground support spanning Indonesia, Vietnam, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Argentina, Lisk has cultivated an ecosystem of founders that Celo Core Co. is proud to welcome into the next chapter of their journeys.

Celo Core Co. will offer continued support for Lisk builders, with core technical mentorship, go-to-market strategy, and marketing guidance among core efforts. That support is grounded in a proven track record of bringing solutions to millions, from partnering with Opera to scale MiniPay to 18M+ users, to identity verification and proof-of-human solutions with Self.xyz. Celo Core Co. and Lisk teams are working together directly to reach every affected founder, including a joint ecosystem all-hands to walk builders through the transition.

The Celo ecosystem is also home to a robust network of decentralized contributors offering years of mentorship, funding, and strategic guidance. These include Prezenti, the community-governed grants program that has funded Celo builders since 2022, deploying more than $2M from the network’s community treasury across 120+ grant contracts and reviewing over 575 applications in four years, with over $130K distributed in its recently completed season. Celo Camp, the accelerator operating since 2020, received more than 300 applications from over 60 countries in its most recent batch, while Celo Core Co.’s Regional Ambassadors are active across five countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Nigeria), leading builder workshops and hands-on technical support in their local communities.

“We’re proud to be the official recommended chain for Lisk’s founders, having long recognized Lisk’s talented founders and core teams’ support providing their ecosystem with the infrastructure and resources to build cutting-edge technical products serving users in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa,” said Marek Olszewski, Celo co-founder and Celo Core Co. CEO. “We’re committed to supporting founders and ensuring no momentum is lost. We’re working directly with the Lisk team to offer their ecosystem projects the hands-on support that Celo founders have relied on over the past six years, so they can remain focused on shipping infrastructure that matters.”

“At Lisk, our mission has been to back founders in high-growth markets who are building for real-world needs, and we’ve seen firsthand what they’re capable of when someone believes in them early. That belief doesn’t end with this chapter. Celo stood out as the right home for our builders: mission-aligned, technically compatible, and deeply committed to the same regions and communities. We’re confident they’ll find everything they need there to keep building what matters,” said Max Kordek, CEO of Lisk.

Celo and Lisk are both OP Stack chains, so contracts, tooling, and wallet integrations carry over with minimal modification. Celo Core Co. has prepared comprehensive migration kits, pairing full documentation on core Celo architecture, including fee abstraction, with a purpose-built developer skill that automates much of the migration itself. Migrating teams also receive elevated testnet allocations and fast-track access to the MiniPay Card.

To learn more about the notable success of Lisk in the decade since launch, including its past two years scaling its Ethereum Layer 2 network, and reflections from executives, read: https://lisk.com/blog/posts/introducing-the-new-lisk/

Lisk builders can register for migration support through the intake form.

Welcoming Lisk Ecosystem Builders to Celo was originally published in The Celo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Verified Humans Can Earn Free Stablecoins, Claiming the US Dollar-Backed Stablecoin Issued by Anchorage and Backed by Tether through Self Verification

Self and Google Cloud’s USA₮ Mainnet Faucet is now live on Celo, unlocking free stablecoins for real, verified humans for the first time.

Celo is the second network after only Ethereum to host native USA₮, a U.S.-regulated dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., and backed by Tether, and the first to support a proof-of-human and ZK identity-based distribution system. The launch is the latest in Self and Google Cloud’s longstanding partnership on Celo, following the launch of 10x boosted Celo Sepolia testnet tokens for verified human developers.

Claims through the Faucet are gasless and open to eligible users worldwide.

How It Works:

• Visit the Mainnet Faucet portal
• Connect your Celo wallet (Ledger, Valora, MetaMask, Rabby) to the USA₮ Mainnet Faucet
• Verify your identity with Self, using your biometric passport, ID Card, Aadhaar, or other eligible government-issued identification. Self uses zero-knowledge technology to generate a proof that you are eligible (18+, not a resident of an OFAC-sanctioned country) without ever transmitting your raw personal data
• Once your Self Pass is verified, your wallet will immediately receive 0.5 USA₮ at no cost
• Send USA₮ to another Celo wallet to receive another 0.2 USA₮
• Hold 5 USA₮ or more on Valora for at least 10 consecutive days to receive another 0.3 USA₮

USA₮ on Celo:

The Celo ecosystem is rapidly expanding support for USA₮, which is supported as a native gas currency in addition to mint and burn functionality. Valora integrated USA₮ on day one, and Squid, which has facilitated over 1M transactions on Celo as its leading chain by transaction count, enables swaps from 100+ chains to USA₮ on Celo.

MiniPay will soon add support for the stablecoin, and blue-chip DeFi protocols across the ecosystem will expand staking and lending capabilities.

Visit the USA₮ Mainnet Faucet to get started: https://cloud.google.com/application/web3/faucet/celo/mainnet

The First (F)air Drop is Here: Introducing Self and Google Cloud’s USA₮ Mainnet Faucet was originally published in The Celo Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.