Celo completed its migration from an independent Cosmos-based L1 to an Ethereum Layer 2 using Optimism’s OP Stack on March 26, 2025. The move reduced security costs by 99.8% by inheriting Ethereum’s validator security, improved interoperability with the broader Ethereum ecosystem, and preserved Celo’s complete five-year transaction history during the transition. For users, the chain retained its hallmark features — sub-cent fees, fast block times, and mobile-first design — while gaining native bridging with Ethereum and access to Ethereum’s liquidity and developer tooling. The migration was the first time a major existing blockchain migrated its full state from L1 to L2.

As of early 2026, Celo leads all Ethereum L2s with peak daily active users hitting 840,000 and monthly actives reaching 1.3 million — ahead of Base, World Chain, Arbitrum, and Optimism. The primary driver is MiniPay, a mobile wallet built in partnership with Opera (400 million browser users globally). MiniPay lets users in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia send stablecoins via phone number with sub-cent fees, no bank account required. The wallet has over 14 million accounts across 66 countries. Celo has also become the #1 transport layer for USDT by weekly active users, surpassing Tron, with over $65 billion in stablecoin volume processed since the L2 migration.

MiniPay is a stablecoin wallet embedded directly within Opera’s mobile browser — users access it without downloading a separate app. It abstracts away crypto complexity: users send money via phone numbers instead of wallet addresses, transact in stablecoins (USDC, cUSD) rather than volatile tokens, and pay near-zero fees. Recent integrations include Mercado Pago and Brazil’s PIX for local payment rails. For someone in Nigeria or Kenya with a $50 Android phone, MiniPay provides access to dollar-denominated savings and transfers without needing a bank account, crypto knowledge, or seed phrase management.

The Great Celo Halvening was a governance-approved reduction of CELO’s inflation rate from approximately 3–4% to 1%, implemented to align the token’s economics with its transition to an Ethereum L2 where validator costs are dramatically lower. On the legacy L1, higher inflation was needed to incentivize validators; as an L2, Ethereum handles security, making aggressive inflation unnecessary. The halvening set the stage for further tokenomics overhauls being discussed in 2026, including buyback-and-burn mechanisms.

cLabs and the Celo Foundation have launched a CELO Tokenomics Initiative that proposes dedicating over 50% of protocol revenue toward purchasing CELO tokens from the open market and burning a portion of the purchase. Additional proposals include redirecting sequencer revenue to the Community Fund, exchanging stablecoin fees for CELO, and a governance vote to immediately burn 1.749 million tokens from protocol reserves. The goal is to close the disconnect between Celo’s strong adoption metrics (840K daily active users, $6.2B monthly stablecoin volume, 10x revenue growth since early 2024) and its token price, which remains over 99% below its August 2021 all-time high.