Celo Price

What Is Celo (CELO)?

Celo is a mobile-focused blockchain that seeks to enhance the accessibility of decentralized finance (DeFi) products to smartphone users. As an open-source Layer 1 protocol, Celo aims to create a globally inclusive financial system through web3 mobile applications.

Powered by its native crypto token, CELO, and localized stablecoins such as Celo Dollar (cUSD) and Celo Euro (cEURO), the blockchain is keen on transforming the financial world using blockchain technology to make cross-border payments as easy as sending a text.

CELO price hit its all-time-high (ATH) at $10.66 in August 2021, but has since dropped to around $1 as the bear market persists. 

Who Is the Founder of Celo?

Celo was co-founded in 2017 by Rene Reinsberg, Sep Kamvar and Marek Olszewski. Since then, the three tech visionaries have been working with a purpose-driven team of investors, developers, NGOs and contributors to create an open financial system for mobile devices.

In 2020, Celo Foundation was launched with the Celo Mainnet to oversee and coordinate the expansion of the fast-growing Celo ecosystem. Celo Foundation then formed the Alliance for Prosperity to onboard a wide range of global players, such as Mercy Corps and the World Health Organization, to help actualize the platform’s vision of building transparent financial tools that are fast and accessible even to the poor. 

What Is CELO Used for?

CELO (initially called CGLD) is the native crypto asset of the Celo blockchain. It’s key to the growth and development of the platform’s ecosystem through aligning incentives for all the stakeholders involved. It provides value to the Celo community by being a transaction, reserve, staking and governance token.

Transaction

CELO can be used as the gas fee for facilitating transactions with the Celo network. Hence, instead of having to use a separate currency for the transaction fee, people can make transactions in CELO and also pay the transaction or gas fee in CELO.

Reserve

CELO is the reserve asset for Celo’s innovative localized stablecoin expansion and contraction mechanism, known as Mento. The Mento mechanism operates through CELO’s SortedOracles smart contract and keeps users incentivized to maintain the price of the CELO stablecoins through arbitrage trading, which adjusts the supply of the coins dynamically.

Staking

The Celo platform operates a proof of stake (PoS) consensus mechanism run by validators who verify transactions on the blockchain. Its users can stake CELO tokens to support the validators and earn rewards. Staking also ensures the security and growth of the Celo ecosystem.

Governance

By holding CELO tokens, owners earn voting rights on the governance of the Celo platform. They can vote on crucial proposals touching on Celo, such as upgrades to smart contracts and modifications on the reserve asset amount.

How Does Celo Work?

Celo works using a full-stack approach to its operations to ensure a smooth experience for its end users, who are mobile users all over the world. To achieve this, Celo uses an address-based encryption rather than the traditional identity-based encryption which requires an email address to generate a public key.

Usually, crypto users need to enter a long 30+ string of alphanumeric characters to transact or send payments to a wallet address. These characters are tedious to use and remember. Celo offers a lightweight identity feature that applies decentralized mapping of phone numbers, and links them to wallet addresses.

To send or receive a payment, each user needs to map their phone number(s) and link it to a cryptographic address through a decentralized attestation process. Validators on Celo carry out the attestation and send an SMS to the user to confirm that their phone number has been linked to a given address. This allows the user to conduct crypto transactions with anyone on their contact list. 

Consequently, the sender can even send funds to a recipient who isn’t a part of the Celo network. The balance is first stored in a smart contract escrow fund. When the recipient creates a Celo wallet and verifies their phone number, the funds are unlocked and transferred to the new wallet. 

What Makes Celo Unique?

Since the official launch of Celo’s Mainnet in 2020, the platform has experienced rapid growth of its robust ecosystem, which consists of different stakeholders looking to create a sustainable global financial system.

EVM Compatibility

Following the non-contentious May 2021 Donut Hardfork on the Celo blockchain, the network experienced upgrades that made it compatible with the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM). As such, the Celo network enjoys smart contract compatibility, and developers can access Ethereum tools through a gas-efficient channel. 

Carbon-Negative Approach

As a PoS blockchain, Celo is already contributing to protection of the environment with its less energy-intensive approach. It then goes above and beyond, aiming to be one of the first carbon-neutral blockchains. For instance, Celo has set a carbon offsetting fund to make the Celo platform carbon-negative. The network has also started a community-driven initiative, the Climate Collective, which intends to create currencies backed by natural resources such as tokenized forests.

Celo Stablecoins

So far, Celo has three native stablecoins: Celo Dollar (cUSD), Celo Euro (cEUR), and Celo Real (cReal), which track the value of the U.S. dollar, the euro and the Brazilian real, respectively. These stablecoins allow the fast and cheap transfer of value using a mobile phone with no need to worry about crypto volatility.

How Many CELO Are in Circulation?

CELO has a max supply of 1 billion tokens with a circulating supply of 456.61 million CELO coins (as of August 10, 2022). The initial 600 million tokens were released on Celo’s Mainnet launch in April 2020.

Forty percent of the max supply is slated to release gradually in the market through rewards and fees. 120 million CELO tokens are a reserve asset for the Celo dollar (cUSD) stablecoin.

How to Store CELO

Celo’s pioneer mobile wallet, Valora, provides a convenient way to store CELO tokens on your mobile phone. You can also store CELO in digital wallets such as the Celo Wallet, Celo Terminal and Steakwallet.

Additionally, while CELO isn’t an ERC-20 token, it can be stored in Ethereum-compatible wallets such as MetaMask.

Where to Buy CELO

You can buy CELO from any top crypto exchange, including Bybit.

How to Buy CELO on Bybit

To purchase CELO on the Bybit exchange, follow these simple steps:

1. Head to Bybit’s Spot trading page (Home → Trade → Spot Trading).

2. Select the CELO/USDT trading pair on the left side of the page.

3. Choose the type of order you’d like: Limit Order, Market Order or Conditional Order.

For Limit Orders:

1. Select Limit.

2. Enter the order price.

3. Enter the number of CELO you wish to buy.

4. Click on Buy CELO.

5. Once you’ve confirmed your information is correct, click on Buy CELO.

6. View your order details under Active on the web page, or Orders if you’re using the Bybit app.

For Market Orders:

1. Select Market.

2. Enter the amount of USDT you’ve paid to buy CELO.

3. Click on Buy CELO.

4. Once you’ve confirmed your information is correct, click on Buy CELO.

5. View your order details under Filled.

For Conditional Orders:

1. Select Conditional.

2. Enter the trigger price.

3. Choose to execute at Market Price or Limit Price.

1. Market Price: Order price doesn’t need to be set.

2. Limit Price: Order price needs to be set.

4. According to order types:

1. Market Buy: Enter the amount of USDT you’ve paid to buy CELO.

2. Limit Buy: Enter the number of CELO you want to buy.

5. Click on Buy CELO.

6. Once you’ve confirmed your information is correct, click on Buy CELO.

7. View your order details under Conditional on the web page, or All Orders → Current Orders on the Bybit app.

For more help, visit the Bybit spot trading guide.