According to official sources, the Celo Foundation has announced the launch of the Celo L2 testnet Dango. This is a key step by core contributor cLabs to introduce an EVM-compatible independent blockchain to Ethereum. The plan was first proposed during EthCC 2023 and aims to fork the Alfajores test network to Dango, allowing ecosystem developers to begin transitioning their projects to the latest iteration of a blockchain built for the real world and designed for fast, low-cost global payments. With today's launch of Dango, all historical data from Alfajores, including smart contracts, accounts, and balances, will be preserved and transferred. This testnet is built on Optimism's OP Stack and uses EigenDA as an alternative data availability layer to maintain low transaction fees, with strategic funding from the Eigen Foundation to the Celo community and support from the community for cLabs' subsequent governance proposals.

Celo has approved the use of USDT to pay for gas fees. The approved governance proposal indicates that this feature will simplify users' trading experience, as users only need to hold USDT stablecoin in their wallets to transfer value on the Celo network. Previously, Golden Finance reported that Celo proposed allowing the use of USDC as a gas token.

The market shows that CELO has risen and broken through $1.8, with the current price at $1.802, an intraday increase of 54.57%. The market is volatile, so please be prepared for risk control. On the news front, Tether officials announced earlier that USDT will be launched on the Celo blockchain network.

Circle's USDC has been deployed on the Celo mainnet. Exchanges, digital wallets, institutions, and developers can access USDC on Celo through Circle Mint and Circle API. Additionally, users can use USDC to pay gas fees on the network that are less than one cent.

Circle will launch USDC on Celo, which is a layer 1 protocol compatible with EVM and transitioning to Ethereum's layer 2 scaling solution. An upcoming governance vote will also determine whether USDC will serve as Celo's official gas currency.

Celo (CELO) is a carbon-negative, mobile-first, and EVM-compatible Layer-1 network in transition to an Ethereum Layer-2. Celo is focused on real-world blockchain use cases such as payments and regenerative finance (ReFi). After raising $36.5 million in two private fundraising rounds, Celo mainnet launched on Earth Day in 2020. Soon after, a public sale for Celo’s native token CELO raised $10 million on CoinList. In early 2021, Celo raised $20 million in another private round. The development and growth of Celo’s network and ecosystem were initially led by cLabs and the Celo Foundation. While these entities are still involved, Celo’s development and growth have become more decentralized and community-driven, with participation from a globally distributed group of projects and DAOs.

According to data from The Block dashboard, the number of transactions on alternative Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains, including Fantom, Avalanche, Celo, Polygon, and BNB Chain, has surged since mid-November. Fantom saw the highest increase, reaching 1,321%, with transaction volume growing from 239,920 on November 17 to 3.41 million on November 26. Celo grew by 1,277% in just four days, with transaction volume increasing from 277,500 on November 22 to 3.82 million on November 26. Polygon saw a 155% increase in transaction volume from November 14 to November 26, while Avalanche's transaction volume grew from 321,900 on November 18 to 3.08 million on November 26, an increase of 857%.

Marek Olszewski, co-founder of Celo and Chief Technology Officer of cLabs, stated that the development of Layer 2 solutions will allow Celo to reintegrate into the Ethereum ecosystem. Celo was born with the vision of building an easy-to-use mobile wallet on Ethereum and has developed into a layer 1 blockchain compatible with the EVM and focused on scalability in 2020. Olszewski stated that developers requested the construction of a scalable EVM chain as a layer 1 launch, but with Ethereum's scalability roadmap now in place through rollups, Olszewski believes this is a good time for Celo to "return" and continue its mission as part of a larger Ethereum expansion plan. Olszewski stated that while cLabs' initial proposal attempted to utilize the OP Stack, the community has not yet decided which stack to adopt, and is still studying and evaluating many proposals from various projects including Polygon Labs and Matter Labs. The team will release a framework in the coming weeks to help make the most technically reasonable choice.

On-chain credit platform Huma has announced its deployment to Celo. The team stated that with the deployment, Huma will introduce Jia, a cross-border payment liquidity platform, to Celo, providing on-chain loans for small businesses in emerging markets such as Kenya and the Philippines. It is reported that the platform provides over $10 million in on-chain loans every month. Prior to this, the real-world asset (RWA) market Untangled Finance deployed on Celo on October 10th after raising $13.5 million.