Opera chooses CELO tokens over cash in strategic move

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Opera chooses celo tokens

Highlights

Opera shifts to CELO token payments, sacrificing short-term revenue
MiniPay growth drives deeper integration with Celo ecosystem
Deal turns Opera into major institutional holder of CELO

Opera bets on tokens and ecosystem growth

According to Cointelegraph, Opera has proposed revising its commercial agreement with Celo by changing the compensation model for integrating its crypto wallet into the browser. Currently, the Norwegian company receives around $160 million per quarter, but it is willing to accept payments in an equivalent amount of CELO tokens. At the current price of $0.81, this implies a 19% loss in value.

Opera stated that the proposed change reflects its “belief in the long-term value” of the Celo ecosystem. The companies have been cooperating since 2021, with the partnership increasingly focused on Opera MiniPay, a self-custody wallet built on Celo, which has recently grown to 14 million users.

Most Opera MiniPay users rely on it for stablecoin payments, and the companies continue expanding globally, recently integrating with Latin American real-time payment platforms PIX and Mercado Pago.

The proposal must be approved by the Celo governance community. If approved, Opera would become one of the largest institutional holders of CELO.

СELO token price dynamics from 2021 to present. Source: CoinMarketCap.

Another key aspect is that if demand and the price of CELO increase, Opera’s dollar-denominated revenue will also grow. If the token were trading at its 2021 high of $10, Opera would receive $1.6 billion per quarter instead of $160 million.

The CELO token reacted immediately to the proposal, rising by around 7%.

Pros and cons of the integration

Switching to token-based payments effectively transforms Opera from an external contractor into a quasi-investor in the Celo ecosystem. The company is voluntarily giving up part of its guaranteed revenue in exchange for potential upside, betting on MiniPay adoption and the expansion of payment infrastructure in emerging markets. This also signals that Opera views Celo not just as a technology partner, but as a core platform for its fintech ambitions.

At the same time, this model increases Opera’s exposure to CELO price volatility and overall network activity. If user growth and transaction volume fail to translate into sustained token demand, the company could face unstable revenue streams.

Overall, the deal reflects a broader trend in the crypto industry, where major tech players increasingly share both risks and rewards with the blockchain ecosystems they integrate with.

As we reported, Opera ADRs jump 15% after USDT added to MiniPay

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