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Lisk is Shutting Down Its Blockchain After 10 Years. It was Once Worth $4 Billion

Getting dollars to people who need them without making them hand over their personal data sounds like a contradiction. Self, USA₮, and Google Cloud have built something that resolves exactly that tension, and they’ve chosen the Celo blockchain as the place to do it.

The three partners launched a mainnet faucet program that distributes USA₮, a regulated dollar-backed stablecoin, directly to verified users. The verification step is the interesting part: Self’s zero-knowledge proof-of-humanity technology reads a user’s passport and confirms they’re a real, eligible human being, then immediately discards the underlying data. The wallet gets funded. The personal information stays private.

What the faucet actually does Self’s zero-knowledge system means that a user can prove “I hold a valid passport and I’m not on a sanctions list” without the program ever seeing the passport number, name, or any other identifying detail. The compliance check, including OFAC screening, happens cryptographically.

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USA₮ was deployed on Celo on July 29, 2026, making Celo its second mainnet launch after Ethereum. From day one, the stablecoin supported native minting and burning functions, and it operates as a gas currency on the network, meaning users can pay transaction fees in USA₮ rather than needing a separate native token. The faucet program itself went live in mid-August 2026, following an announcement in March.

USA₮ is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. and backed by Tether, positioning it as a regulated instrument with institutional-grade custody behind it.

Why Celo, and why now Celo’s choice as the launch network is not arbitrary. The blockchain has ranked first for USD₮ usage by weekly active users since a 2024 deployment. Celo serves tens of millions of users through mobile-integrated wallets, with Opera’s MiniPay being a prominent example of how the network reaches people who access the internet primarily through smartphones.

Rene Reinsberg, who co-founded Celo and serves as CEO of Self, described the distribution approach as a significant step toward providing accessible digital dollars while meeting compliance standards.

The compliance angle is doing a lot of work here Self’s approach inverts traditional identity logic. The system verifies identity without retaining it. A user’s eligibility is confirmed at the moment of verification, the proof is generated cryptographically, and the underlying data is never stored. From a compliance standpoint, the program still satisfies OFAC screening requirements. From a privacy standpoint, there’s no honeypot of personal data to breach.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

With 28% of cross-chain USDT transfers already flowing through Celo, Tether's GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin is embedding itself into the network's existing liquidity rather than building new ecosystems. This is a direct competitive move against Circle's patent fortress and the Open USD consortium – different strategies, same regulatory future.

Tether’s launch of its GENIUS Act-compliant USAT stablecoin on the Celo blockchain is not a product play; it is a calculated distribution play. By deploying on a network that already handles approximately 28% of cross-chain USDT transfers, Tether is prioritizing the expansion of its regulated footprint over the introduction of novel financial primitives. This deployment marks a pivot in Tether’s strategy – existing liquidity over ecosystem-building.

Celo’s utility as a distribution channel is rooted in its existing infrastructure. The network currently processes 4.23 million weekly active USDT users and claims approximately 57.6% stablecoin activity share. Crucially, the integration of CIP-64 fee abstraction allows users to pay gas fees in any of 18 approved Celo-native ERC-20 assets, a feature that has led to approximately 50% of gas fees on the network being settled in stablecoins. By bringing USAT to this environment, Tether effectively positions its regulated asset as a native gas token, embedding it directly into the transactional flow of a high-velocity payment rail.

The regulatory scaffolding supporting USAT is designed to meet the requirements of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, signed July 18, 2025. USAT is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., the only federally chartered crypto bank in the United States. Reserves are held at U.S. financial institutions with Cantor Fitzgerald acting as custodian, while Deloitte provides monthly independent reserve attestations. This structure provides the institutional-grade transparency required to operate within the new federal framework, as noted by Tether USA CEO Bo Hines, who stated, “I believe that both USDT and USAT will meet the same compliance standards outlined in the GENIUS Act.”

While Tether is building a regulated distribution footprint, Circle is constructing an intellectual property moat, evidenced by its recent acquisition of over 680 IBM blockchain patent families, as detailed in Post 128425. These represent distinct paths toward the same GENIUS Act-compliant future. Tether is leveraging its existing dominance to secure regulated distribution, whereas Circle is betting on patent-protected technology to define the market. Both strategies are responses to the GENIUS Act Compliance Squeeze, which has forced issuers to prioritize regulatory alignment.

With a circulating supply of approximately $141 million, USAT remains a compliant wedge rather than a volume play, especially when compared to the $183.8 billion market cap of USDT. The total stablecoin market sits at approximately $308.5 billion, and while Tether maintains a dominant position, the competitive pressure is mounting. As discussed in Post 128415, the market is increasingly crowded, and the entry of new, compliant products is essential for maintaining relevance.

Tether’s distribution-first approach faces immediate pressure from the Open USD consortium, which includes BlackRock, Coinbase, Mastercard, Stripe, and Visa. This 140-plus company threat is reshaping the competitive landscape, as evidenced by Visa’s launch of its Stablecoin Platform on July 16, 2026, with Open USD as an inaugural partner. Meanwhile, Mizuho Securities downgraded Circle to underperform on July 14, 2026, citing the Open USD threat. The battle for stablecoin dominance is moving toward institutional-grade, consortium-backed rails.

Tether’s next phase of growth on Celo involves deeper integration with the MiniPay wallet, which will extend the reach of USAT into emerging markets across Latin America and Africa. This mobile-first strategy aligns with Celo’s positioning as a payment rail for regions where traditional banking infrastructure is often inaccessible. By combining regulated issuance with mobile-native distribution, Tether is attempting to capture the next wave of stablecoin adoption in high-growth markets.

Tether’s bet is that regulatory compliance, paired with existing high-velocity rails, creates a moat that pure-play technology providers cannot easily bridge.

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The stablecoin market has been dominated by a handful of dollar-pegged assets running largely on Ethereum. Tether’s USAT, a newer entrant that arrived in January with built-in regulatory compliance, is now breaking that pattern. On July 29, USAT expanded to Celo, an EVM-compatible layer-1 network focused on mobile payments, according to WuBlockchain.

Issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, a federally chartered crypto bank, USAT is designed to meet the requirements of the GENIUS Act, a U.S. legislative push to bring stablecoin issuance under a clear regulatory perimeter. The token’s total market capitalization stands at roughly $185 million. On Celo, users can natively mint and burn USAT, and critically, they can use it directly to pay gas fees—a feature that significantly simplifies the transaction experience for non-technical users.

Why Celo is More Than Just Another Chain Celo is not a casual choice. The network positions itself as a mobile-first blockchain, with a focus on making crypto payments accessible in emerging markets. Its lightweight client and ability to map wallet addresses to phone numbers have attracted projects that aim to serve the underbanked. By selecting Celo for its first post-Ethereum deployment, Tether is aligning with a chain that has a real-world payments narrative rather than a speculative DeFi-centric one. That matters because the GENIUS Act’s stablecoin framework is partially built around consumer protection and payments utility.

The ability to pay transaction fees in USAT without holding a separate CELO token lowers the barrier for users who only want to move dollars. It also frees developers from the complexity of managing a secondary fee token when building payment-focused dApps. In environments where every fraction of a cent counts, this kind of UX decision can be the difference between adoption and abandonment. Stablecoins have become the settlement layer for a growing share of on-chain transactions, including real-world asset tokenization that recently crossed $20 billion in total value, as reported by BlockchainReporter.

Regulatory Compliance Isn’t Optional Anymore The timing of the expansion coincides with a fierce political battle over stablecoin regulation in Washington. Just days ago, major banking groups were lobbying last-minute changes to the crypto bill that would become law if it passes the Senate vote. Tether isn’t waiting. By issuing USAT through a chartered bank, the company is building a product that can operate under the anticipated new rules, even as other issuers scramble to adjust. The contrast is sharp: while some stablecoin platforms operate in a gray zone, USAT is walking into a regulated environment from day one.

As detailed in a recent BlockchainReporter analysis, the banking lobby is pushing hard to alter the bill’s language before the Senate vote. The $185 million market cap for USAT is modest next to Tether’s $83 billion USDT, but the metric doesn’t capture the strategic value. USAT is a regulatory bet. It shows that compliance does not have to mean staying on a single chain. If Celo proves to be a viable testbed, other networks may follow. That would fragment the competitive landscape for stablecoins and create pressure on chains to offer gas fee integration to attract regulated liquidity.

What’s Still Unclear Deploying a compliant stablecoin on a chain with a smaller user base comes with discovery risk. Celo’s transaction volume remains a fraction of Ethereum’s, and while its mobile narrative is compelling, actual stablecoin usage on the network has not yet scaled. USAT’s success on Celo will depend on whether payment providers and wallet developers integrate it into their flows. Without broad on-ramps and merchant acceptance, the gas fee advantage stays theoretical.

There’s also the question of how deeply the developer community embraces USAT. Many dApps on Celo still default to USDC or cUSD for settlement. A shift to USAT would require liquidity incentives or clear compliance advantages that developers and users can see. Tether has not announced any co-incentive programs yet, and Anchorage Digital’s banking charter, while a strong regulatory credential, does not automatically solve distribution.

While developer activity across major blockchains remains strong, as tracked by BlockchainReporter’s weekly rankings, Celo has historically fallen outside the top ten networks by development metrics. Changing that will be critical if USAT is to find a lasting home there. For now, the Celo deployment is a signal that regulated stablecoins are outgrowing Ethereum’s ecosystem. Whether the market follows will depend on the pace at which alternative layer-1s meet compliance demands and how aggressively issuers like Tether pursue multi-chain strategies. In a year where stablecoin legislation is front and center, every deployment choice counts as a political statement too.

AUTHOR

Brenda is a writer with three years of experience specializing in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. She graduated from the University of Mombasa with a degree in Psychology. She has worked at Cryptopolitan and Blockchain Reporter.

THE BLOCK: Tether's GENIUS-compliant USAT stablecoin launches on Celo, marking first expansion beyond Ethereum

Celo has added native support for USAT, a US dollar stablecoin backed by Tether, expanding regulated digital dollar access across its ecosystem.

The deployment, announced on Wednesday, makes Celo the second network after Ethereum to host native USAT and introduces several features from launch, including native minting, redemption and the ability to use USAT as a gas currency for transactions.

Issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, USAT is backed by reserves custodied by Cantor Fitzgerald and designed to comply with the requirements of the GENIUS Act.

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Celo said its gas payment model removes a common crypto onboarding hurdle by allowing users to pay fees with stablecoins rather than requiring a separate blockchain token. The network’s fee abstraction technology, now formalized under CIP-64, has already driven stablecoin-based gas payments, with more than 50% of Celo fees paid using stablecoins, the team added.

The launch strengthens the relationship between Tether assets and Celo. The network has become the top distribution platform for USDT by weekly active users, accounting for 28% of USDT transfers across blockchains. Celo also dominates adoption of XAUt0, holding more than 90% of unique holders for the omnichain Tether Gold asset.

Celo CEO Marek Olszewski said USAT will bring compliant dollar infrastructure to users already relying on the network for payments, savings and commerce.

“Bringing Anchorage and Tether’s trusted, compliant stablecoin infrastructure to Celo is the critical next step in our work building a trillion-dollar onchain economy that is more accessible, efficient, and equitable than the systems that came before,” Olszewski stated.

Tether US CEO Bo Hines added that Celo’s existing stablecoin activity made it a natural expansion target.

USAT adoption will continue through Celo-based applications. Opera’s MiniPay wallet, which has more than 18 million users, plans to add support for USAT, expanding its existing Tether asset offerings. Valora has already integrated the stablecoin, while additional support is expected from protocols including Morpho, Squid and Uniswap.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.

Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.

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Celo has enhanced its collaboration with Ledger by integrating a key network feature into the hardware wallet provider’s platform, offering more flexible transaction fee options to users worldwide.

Ledger supports Celo’s CIP-64 fee abstractionLedger has implemented support for Celo’s fee abstraction, made possible through the network’s CIP-64 upgrade. This change allows users to pay transaction fees using a variety of Celo-native assets, rather than being restricted to the CELO token.

The new functionality builds on Ledger Live’s December 2025 update, where users gained the ability to transact and exchange CELO and Celo stablecoins through Ledger’s interface.

With this latest expansion, Ledger’s user base of more than 8 million people in over 200 countries can now settle gas fees in any of 18 supported tokens. These payment options include Tether USD₮, USDC, Wrapped Ether (WETH), and multiple fiat-referenced stablecoins developed by Mento Labs.

Accepted fiat-backed tokens span a range of global currencies such as the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, Nigerian naira, Kenyan shilling, and South African rand, offering considerably broader payment flexibility.

Mini dictionary: CIP-64, or Celo Improvement Proposal 64, is an upgrade that enables transaction fees to be paid with approved ERC-20 tokens on the Celo network, rather than requiring users to exclusively use the CELO token for gas payments.

Stablecoins overtake CELO for transactionsLaunched in July 2023 during the network’s Gingerbread hard fork, CIP-64 has allowed users to pay transaction fees with selected stablecoins and other ERC-20 tokens. This approach, now widely adopted across the Celo network, has led to a significant shift in transaction behavior.

Celo reports that nearly half of all transaction volume on the network now uses stablecoins denominated in US dollars, instead of the network’s native CELO token.

By allowing users to handle transaction fees with familiar currencies, Celo aims to lower barriers to entry and streamline the experience of using money across blockchain payments and decentralized finance applications.

The integration with Ledger is expected to further simplify onboarding, particularly for users interested in exploring Celo payments and DeFi solutions.

Celo leads in tokenized gold adoptionBeyond network transactions, Celo highlighted its leading position in the market for tokenized gold. According to network figures, 107,622 users on Celo own Tether Gold (XAUT), positioning the network as the dominant platform for tokenized gold holders.

Blockchain data estimates a total of 118,500 XAUT holders across seven blockchain networks. Of these, Celo accounts for 90.8%, followed by Solana at 4.5%. Other platforms with measurable XAUT user bases include HyperEVM (1.9%), Arbitrum One (1.8%), Plasma (0.6%), Monad (0.3%), and Ink (0.1%).

Blockchain NetworkXAUT Holders (%)Celo90.8%Solana4.5%HyperEVM1.9%Arbitrum One1.8%Plasma0.6%Monad0.3%Ink0.1%Celo attributes its dominance to a growing ecosystem, including applications such as MiniPay, Squid Router, Uniswap, Featherlend, Morpho, and TheoriqAI, that together drive adoption of real-world asset tokenization.

Celo, a mobile-first blockchain that aims to make decentralized financial services accessible to anyone with a smartphone, is now advancing into sectors beyond digital-only payments. By making stablecoin-based gas payments easier and leading the charge on tokenized gold, Celo is seeking new use cases for blockchain technology in mainstream finance.

Celo’s expanding ecosystem and diverse payment options underscore its strategy to position itself as a leading platform for accessible and practical financial instruments on the blockchain.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Aave’s presence on the Celo blockchain just got a lot more visible. Token Terminal announced on July 6 that it now tracks Aave’s on-chain data on Celo, and the first headline number is a big one: monthly active users on the network are up roughly 80% over the past month.

What the numbers actually tell us The 80% MAU increase represents Aave’s user adoption trajectory on Celo since the protocol’s V3 deployment there. Aave V3 went live on Celo on March 17, 2025, following community governance approval the year prior.

Token Terminal, which publishes standardized on-chain metrics across protocols, now provides analytics for Aave on Celo covering active addresses, revenue, and monthly active users.

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The supported asset list on Celo includes CELO, USDC, USDT, cUSD, and cEUR. Transaction costs on Celo sit below one cent, with near-instant finality.

The mobile-first thesis Celo’s entire identity revolves around mobile accessibility. The blockchain was architected from the ground up to work on smartphones, mapping wallet addresses to phone numbers and keeping computational requirements light enough for low-end devices.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov has specifically highlighted the potential for the Celo deployment to onboard new users and connect real-world assets to DeFi opportunities.

Celo already counts hundreds of thousands of daily active users across its ecosystem.

Why this matters for investors The Token Terminal integration provides standardized, publicly accessible data covering how Aave performs on Celo versus other chains, including active addresses, revenue, and monthly active users. That kind of transparency tends to attract institutional money.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

USA₮ expands to Celo and introduces Google Cloud support for distribution.

PANews reported on March 31 that, according to an official announcement from USA₮, the compliant digital dollar USA₮ issued by Anchorage Digital Bank has officially expanded to Celo, becoming its first supported network after Ethereum. The project also partnered with Self and Google Cloud to launch a mainnet faucet, allowing the distribution of USA₮ to compliant users through privacy-preserving human authentication.

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USA₮, the dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and supported by Tether, is expanding to Celo, marking its first blockchain deployment beyond Ethereum.

The move places the regulated token on a network that has become one of the most active rails for real-world stablecoin use.

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Tether introduced the token in January as a US-regulated product issued through Anchorage Digital Bank under federal OCC oversight, positioning it as a domestic complement to USD₮ rather than a replacement for its flagship offshore stablecoin. The project was built to comply with the GENIUS Act and target US users through a more tightly regulated structure.

Celo gives USA₮ immediate access to a distribution network that already looks built for stablecoin payments. Opera said this month that MiniPay, its self-custodial wallet on Celo, has grown to more than 14 million account registrations and processed over 420 million transactions across more than 66 countries.

Opera and Celo also said the network now counts more than 4.23 million weekly active USD₮ users, underscoring how central stablecoins have become to activity on the chain.

That helps explain why Celo was chosen as the first expansion chain. The network has leaned into payments with features such as fee abstraction, which lets users pay gas in stablecoins instead of a native token, along with a mobile-first design geared toward cheap and simple transfers. Celo describes itself as an Ethereum layer 2 focused on fast, low-cost payments and real-world adoption.

Google Cloud is also part of the rollout, adding a broader infrastructure layer to the launch. The company has been expanding further into digital asset and payments infrastructure through products such as Universal Ledger, which it says is built for programmable transfers and compliance focused financial applications. In this case, the USA₮ rollout connects that infrastructure to a privacy preserving proof of humanity distribution model through Self.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

It marks the GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin's first expansion beyond the Ethereum L1.

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Today, Tether announced that its USAT stablecoin – designed specifically to comply with the GENIUS Act – is expanding to the Celo blockchain.

What's the Scoop?New Deployment: USAT is now available on the Celo, an Ethereum L2 scaling solution focused on attracting real-world payments use cases. This deployment marks the GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin's first expansion beyond the Ethereum L1.Powerful Partnership: The launch also introduces new distribution pathways for USAT. In collaboration with Self and Google Cloud, a mainnet faucet will enable verified users to access USAT through a privacy-preserving proof-of-humanity system.Compliant Alternative: Unlike Tether's flagship USDT stablecoin (which is only partially reserved by risk-free dollar investments and fails to comply with other chapters of the GENIUS Act), USAT is designed for compliance. Reserves are custodied by Anchorage Digital, a federally registered national trust bank, and monthly reserve attestations are supplied by Deloitte, in accordance with American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) standards.Transparency Push: Last week, Tether announced that it had, "entered a formal engagement with a Big Four accounting firm to complete its first full independent financial statement audit." Reporting from the Financial Times subsequently identified the unnamed auditor as KPMG, with pre-audit preparation provided by PwC.USA₮ Expands to Celo, Introducing Google Cloud-Supported Distribution for Regulated Digital Dollars - USA₮.io

31 March 2026 – USA₮, a digital dollar issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., today announced its expansion to Celo, marking the first blockchain beyond Ethereum to support the stablecoin. The deployment brings USA₮ to a network that has become a leading global transport layer for stablecoins, expanding access to digital dollars for millions of […]

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Jack Inabinet is a Senior Analyst with a passion for exploring the bleeding edge of crypto and finance. Prior to joining Bankless, Jack worked as an analyst at HAL Real Estate where he conducted market research and financial analysis for commercial real estate development and acquisition activities in the Seattle region. He graduated from the University of Washington’s Michael G. Foster School of Business.

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Tether’s USAT stablecoin – a regulated, U.S.-market digital dollar – is leaving Ethereum mainnet for the first time, landing on Celo, a mobile-first Ethereum layer-2 network with 14 million Opera MiniPay wallet users already transacting across 66+ countries.

That’s not a minor technical footnote. It’s a direct pipeline from regulated dollar infrastructure into one of the most active real-world stablecoin ecosystems on-chain today.

Tether announced the expansion on March 31, 2026, with Google Cloud providing infrastructure support and Celo governance set to vote on enabling USAT as the network’s native gas currency. Celo already hosts 4.23 million weekly active USDT users – so USAT isn’t arriving to an empty room.

Secure. Borderless. Built for the real world. 🌍$USAT is officially coming to @Celo, bringing the most trusted digital dollar to millions of mobile users. Additionally, we're launching with a privacy-first mainnet faucet powered by @googlecloud pic.twitter.com/fN2Lphmfe5

— USAT (@usat) March 31, 2026

What Does USAT on Celo Actually Mean for DeFi Fees and Liquidity? Start with the basics. Ethereum mainnet – the original blockchain where USAT launched in January 2026 – is powerful but expensive. During busy periods, a single token transfer can cost $5–$30 in gas fees. For someone sending $50 to a family member overseas, that’s simply not viable.

Celo is built differently. It’s an Ethereum layer-2 although that’s changing – Fees on Celo run fractions of a cent. That changes who can realistically use USAT.

After much consideration pic.twitter.com/N2Ae0bi4DU

— Celo.eth/acc 🦇 🌳 (@Celo) April 1, 2026

There’s another feature worth understanding: fee abstraction. On most blockchains, you need the network’s native token on hand just to pay transaction fees – even if you only want to move stablecoins. Celo removes that friction.

Once Celo governance approves USAT as a gas currency, users will be able to pay fees directly in USAT itself. No ETH, no CELO token required. For a first-time DeFi user, that’s the difference between a manageable experience and a confusing one.

The Google Cloud integration adds another layer. A mainnet faucet – a tool that distributes small amounts of tokens to verified users – will use privacy-preserving proof-of-humanity verification developed with a platform called Self.

Verified users can claim USAT without exposing personal data. That’s meaningful for regulated stablecoins that need to confirm users are real humans without building surveillance infrastructure.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino framed the move around access: “More than 566 million people globally use USDT as a reliable way to access and move dollars, particularly in markets where traditional financial infrastructure falls short.

” The Celo expansion brings USAT directly into the ecosystem those users are already operating in. Standard Chartered flagged Tuesday that stablecoin velocity has doubled in two years, with coins changing hands an average of six times per month – and the bank now projects the stablecoin market reaching $2 trillion in total market cap. USAT’s Celo move is timed into that acceleration.

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Stripe-owned Bridge, the stablecoin orchestration platform, added Celo support on May 6, 2026, connecting one of crypto's most active stablecoin networks to its single API for onramps, offramps, and cross-chain stablecoin transfers. The integration gives any business building on Bridge instant access to a chain where stablecoins are a daily payment rail rather than a trading instrument.

@stripe acquired Bridge in early 2025 in what was its largest deal at the time. The platform handles fiat-to-stablecoin flows, embedded wallets, cards, and cross-chain bridging. Celo support was teased at Stripe Sessions 2026 and was formally announced at CoinDesk's Consensus 2026 on May 6. 

Celo on stage at Consensus 2026Why Celo?Celo launched in 2020 with stablecoin payments as its core use case. It migrated to an Ethereum Layer 2 in March 2025, and the network now offers sub-cent fees, one-second blocks, and gas payable directly in stablecoins. That last detail matters more than it sounds. Users do not need to hold a separate gas token to move money, which removes a major friction point for non-crypto-native users in emerging markets.

The stablecoin activity on Celo is real-world rather than speculative. The chain hosts remittances, savings, peer-to-peer payments, and commerce in places where traditional rails are slow or expensive.

What do the numbers actually look like?Here's what Celo brings to the table: 

1.3 billion lifetime transactions on the network.Over $65 billion in stablecoin volume since the March 2025 Layer 2 migration.8x revenue growth since the network's tokenomics overhaul.600,000+ daily active users, one of the highest counts among Ethereum L2s.25 native stablecoins in circulation, including USDC, USDT, and the upcoming USA₮.15 million+ users on MiniPay across 66 countries.For context, $65 billion in stablecoin volume in just over a year places Celo in the upper tier of chains tracked for stablecoin activity, and its daily active user count is ahead of several Layer 2s with much higher fully diluted valuations.

What is MiniPay's role?@miniPay is a self-custodial wallet built into Opera's mobile browser. It runs on Celo and has driven more than 400 million stablecoin transactions to date. Roughly 50 Mini Apps power use cases like remittances, peer-to-peer payments, and merchant commerce. @opera has signaled plans to roll MiniPay out to its wider base, which exceeds 50 million browser users.

This is the wedge that makes Celo different from Layer 2s focused on DeFi yield. The user base is not chasing points programs. They are paying utility bills.

What did Celo say?Celo co-founder Marek Olszewski (@marek_) framed the move as closing the gap between stablecoin infrastructure and actual users.

"Celo was built for the people who actually need stablecoins to work, for remittances, for savings, for daily commerce in markets where legacy rails fall short. Bridge has built the most developer-ready platform for moving stablecoins at scale. Together, we're closing the gap between stablecoin infrastructure and real-world adoption," Olszewski said in the official announcement.

What does this mean for developers?For teams already building on Bridge, the integration removes the need to write separate logic for Celo on/off-ramps or bridging. They get access to Celo's user base through the same API they already use for other supported chains.

For @Celo, the upside is distribution. Stripe's customer base now has a direct line into a chain where stablecoin activity is already happening at scale, without the long onboarding cycle that comes with most chain integrations.

Bridge (@Stablecoin) has been adding chains and features rapidly through 2026, and Celo is one of the more strategically aligned additions given its payment-first design. The pitch from both sides is that this is less about adding another network to a list and more about pairing one of the most heavily used stablecoin chains with the fintech stack that already has the merchants.

Sources:

Celo Blog - official announcement of the Bridge integration with full network metrics and the Olszewski quote.Celo on X - official Celo account, posted the announcement thread with metrics breakdown on May 6, 2026.Bridge on X - Stripe-owned Bridge's official account covering platform updates and chain integrations.MiniPay on X - Opera's self-custodial wallet account, primary source for MiniPay user counts and country reach.

Uniswap is pushing its protocol fee system to three more blockchains. A governance proposal posted on May 16 seeks to activate fee collection and UNI token burning on BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo, bringing the total number of chains with live protocol fees to 13.

The move is part of a phased rollout that started on Ethereum mainnet in late December 2025. Since then, fees have already gone live on nine additional chains including Arbitrum, Base, OP Mainnet, Soneium, X Layer, Worldchain, and Zora. The latest expansion targets three of the most active alternative networks in DeFi.

How the fee structure works Protocol fees on the new chains are set at 1/5 of the pool fee. In English: if a liquidity pool charges a 0.30% swap fee, the protocol takes 0.06% off the top. That ratio mirrors what’s already running on the other integrated chains.

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Fees are routed into what Uniswap calls TokenJars on each respective chain. From there, the collected UNI tokens get bridged back to Ethereum mainnet and sent to the 0xdead address, a well-known burn address that permanently removes tokens from circulation.

The Celo activation is actually a fix. A prior governance proposal, numbered #94, contained a configuration error that prevented fees from going live on the network. This new proposal corrects that mistake while simultaneously onboarding BNB Chain and Polygon with fresh TokenJar infrastructure.

Governance moved fast on this one The proposal bypassed the usual Request for Comment stage entirely. Under a framework called UNIfication, the expansion qualified for an expedited governance process: a five-day Snapshot vote followed by an onchain vote. No prolonged debate period required.

Community response has been strongly supportive during the Snapshot voting process.

What this means for investors and traders For liquidity providers on BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo, the 1/5 fee take means a slightly smaller share of swap fees flowing to their pockets. On a pool with a 0.30% fee, LPs would receive 0.24% instead of the full amount.

The cross-chain bridging component introduces its own set of risks. Bridge exploits have been among the most costly attack vectors in DeFi history. While the TokenJar and bridging architecture has been operating on other chains without incident, every new chain integration expands the attack surface.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Uniswap DAO has unveiled a new proposal to extend its fee collection and UNI token burn mechanism to BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo, aiming to expand the popular UNIfication program beyond its current scope on Ethereum and other major networks. If approved, this move would integrate three new blockchains into Uniswap’s evolving ecosystem, reinforcing its multi-chain ambitions.

The proposal, titled “Protocol Fee Expansion: Vote 3” (Proposal #96), appears on the Uniswap governance portal and is scheduled for a community vote starting May 24, 2026, according to the Uniswap Foundation calendar. Should the community approve, the fee-burning mechanism—already live on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, OP Mainnet, and several others—would now launch on these three additional chains.

Details in the proposal specify that, on BNB Chain and Polygon, fees from v2 pools will be channeled directly to a smart contract called TokenJar, while v3 factory management will transfer to the advanced V3OpenFeeAdapter contract. On Celo, implementation will be more complex due to previous technical issues, requiring the use of cross-chain accounts for some operations.

Glossary: TokenJar and Firepit are key smart contracts for Uniswap’s fee accrual and burning process. TokenJar gathers protocol fees on each chain, while Firepit completes the burn by destroying an equivalent amount of UNI tokens.

The system is designed so that accumulated protocol fees are consolidated in a central account. Users must first burn UNI, after which the burnt UNI is sent to the famed “0xdead” address on Ethereum’s mainnet for finalization.

Impact of the fee burn program on UniswapUNIfication was introduced on Uniswap in December 2025 via community vote, directly linking fee collection and burning to increased UNI token engagement. During this period, UNI rallied from $4.95 up to $9.25 in a short span, reflecting rising interest after implementation.

Back in March, Proposals 94 and 95 saw support from a combined 139 million UNI, enabling the fee collection mechanism to expand across eight further blockchains.

The latest Proposal 96 would bring the total number of UNIfication-enabled networks to eleven. On the activated chains, v2 pools split the standard 0.3% trading fee, with 0.25% going to liquidity providers and 0.05% allocated for the protocol. For v3 pools, fee parameters are set by the new adapter contract per the proposal.

Uniswap’s financial profile and network dataData from Defillama shows that Uniswap’s cumulative protocol fees across all blockchains have reached $5.57 billion to date. Annually, the protocol generates approximately $477 million in revenue, with $3.3 billion currently locked in the platform.

BNB Chain has contributed $117 million in total value locked (TVL) and $3.53 million in protocol fees over the last 30 days, while Polygon accounts for $76.5 million TVL and $1.02 million in fees for the same period. However, fee rewards for UNI holders are not yet distributed on these two networks pending proposal approval.

NetworkTotal Value Locked (TVL)30-Day FeesDistributed to UNI HoldersBNB Chain$117 million$3.53 millionNoPolygon$76.5 million$1.02 millionNoCelo$4.87 million$174,000NoRecent price movements captured by CryptoAppsy indicate that UNI is currently trading at $3.30, a steep decline of 92.7% from its all-time high of $44.97 in May 2021.

As part of UNIfication, a total of 100 million UNI sourced from the treasury were retrospectively burned as a lump sum, calculated to represent fees that might have been accrued from the program’s inception. The proposal was co-authored by Uniswap founder Hayden Adams.

Streamlined governance rolls out for faster changesThe latest proposal implements the expedited governance process introduced with UNIfication. Under this fast-tracked system, fee parameters discussed in the community can progress from a five-day Snapshot poll to an on-chain vote immediately, expediting important protocol updates.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

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Table of contents

In a significant development for the cryptocurrency market, Toncoin (TON), Celo (CELO), Hashflow (HFT), JasmyCoin (JASMY), and Metis (METIS) have been officially listed on DWF Liquid Markets. From now onwards, traders can easily access these coins. These tokens are available in the following pairs for users TON/USDT, CELO/USDT, HFT/USDT, JASMY/USDT, and METIS/USDT. Earlier, Liquid Markets added $JOE, $LADYS, and $FLOKI as well.

DWF Markets Welcomes Revived TON, Inclusive Celo, and Liquid Hashflow Toncoin (TON) is an important a decentralized layer-1 blockchain. It was initially developed in 2018 by the encrypted messaging platform Telegram. Apart from the project’s initial neglect, it has been revived by the TON Foundation. It has been also rebranded from Telegram Open Network to The Open Network.  Additionally, it showcased a renewed focus on its development and potential.

Celo is another addition to the DWF Liquid Markets. It is a carbon-negative, permissionless blockchain with a plenty of ecosystem of global partners. This blockchain is actively supporting the creation of innovative Web3 decentralized applications (dapps). Moreover, it aims at fostering a more inclusive financial system accessible to all.

Hashflow offers traders deep liquidity across various leading blockchains. With access to approximately $8 billion in liquidity, Hashflow promises traders the best prices. It also facilitates seamless trading experiences for every token, both interchain and cross-chain.

JasmyCoin and Metis Enter Crypto Space, Addressing Scalability and Efficiency JasmyCoin (JASMY) emerges as a cryptocurrency project from Jasmy Corporation. It is a Tokyo-based Internet of Things (IoT) provider. Operating within the realm of the Internet of Things, JasmyCoin leverages both mechanical and digital components. In addition to this, JasmyCoin is equipped with unique identifiers to transmit data efficiently.

Lastly, Metis joins the lineup as an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution. It aims to address the blockchain problems by offering decentralization, security, and scalability at the same time. Additionally, Metis aims to tackle some of Ethereum’s most pressing challenges. These challenges include speed, cost, and scalability. As a result, it enhances the overall efficiency and functionality of the Ethereum network.

The addition of these five tokens to DWF Liquid Markets will expand the platform’s offerings. Moreover, it is going to provide traders with increased access to a plethora of innovative blockchain projects. The world of cryptocurrency market is continuously evolving. In this scenario, the availability of such tokens on established trading platforms is very necessary. The platforms like DWF Liquid Markets reflect the increasing interest of crypto worldwide.

AUTHOR

Umair Younas is a cryptocurrency-related content writer linked with this work since 2019. Here, at Blockchainreporter, he serves as a news and article writer. He is a crypto, blockchain, NFTs, DeFi, and FinTech enthusiast. He has strong command over writing authentic reviews about brokers and exchanges and he has collaborated with our education team to write educational content as well. He has a dream to raise awareness among people about digital currencies. His works are well-researched and brimmed with information hence they provide fresh insights. Stay tuned to his posts if you want to stay up-to-date with the crypto-verse.

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