Celo Goes Live on Stripe-Owned Bridge

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. 

Why 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.