First, let's get to know this project:
#CELO —Independent public chain to Ethereum Layer 2
The CELO team is composed of members from companies like Google, Coinbase, etc., and has established a 'mobile-first' strategy from the beginning, aiming to enable global users, especially the unbanked populations in developing countries, to easily use cryptocurrency for payments and DeFi services through smartphones.
The team has launched innovative features such as using phone numbers as payment addresses and supporting gas fees paid in stablecoins to lower the barrier to entry. The ecosystem has gradually developed, and the TVL (Total Value Locked) has seen rapid growth.
In July 2023, the core development team cLabs proposed the transformation to Ethereum Layer 2. After community voting approved it, the migration process officially started on March 26, 2025, transitioning from an independent Layer 1 to an Ethereum Layer 2 built on OP Stack. (#OP invested tens of millions of dollars to empower CELO)
This transformation is the most important strategic shift for the project, aiming to leverage Ethereum's security and vast ecosystem while addressing its own challenges in scalability and interoperability.
After completing the migration to Layer 2, CELO's development direction is more focused on the following aspects:
1. Deepening integration with the Ethereum ecosystem: This is the current core strategy. After becoming Layer 2, CELO now has native Ethereum bridging capabilities, significantly reducing block time from 5 seconds to 1 second, enhancing transaction efficiency and experience. The goal is to combine more closely with Ethereum's security and liquidity.
2. Expanding stablecoin and real-world asset (RWA) use cases: CELO is vigorously promoting stablecoin payments. In addition to its own cUSD, it has integrated mainstream USDC and USDT, allowing users to directly use these stablecoins to pay network gas fees, greatly lowering the barrier to entry. At the same time, by collaborating with various protocols, it is setting up real financial scenarios such as remittances and cross-border payments.
3. Exploring cutting-edge technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZK): On the technological frontier, CELO has started to布局 zero-knowledge proof field. For instance, in November 2025, it announced collaborations with multiple teams to explore ZK technologies, including optimizing L2 scalability, decentralized identity verification, and privacy payment layers (L3) to enhance the network's scalability, privacy, and functionality.
4. Continuously promoting mobile inclusive finance: Despite the technical architecture upgrades, the original intention of 'providing inclusive financial services for global smartphone users' has not changed. For example, its lightweight wallet MiniPay within the ecosystem has gained over 2 million users in African countries, proving its practicality in target markets.
If you have only seen the article above, combined with the recently concluded Binance Blockchain Week, CELO remains one of the few projects that have delivered impressive results. Coupled with the empowerment of OP Capital and Binance Capital, top venture capital firms like a16Z have also supported it, and even Vitalik has publicly praised the CELO project on Twitter. Logically, this should be a project born with a golden spoon, deserving to stand among the top 30 by market cap. What is unexpected is that #做市商 has played this good hand poorly.
First, there is the relentless decline in token prices.
Perhaps the price cannot affect everything, but it can indeed significantly influence the enthusiasm for ecological participation.
I have always had a concept: the most valuable thing in WEB 3 is not good projects, but builders who are willing to wholeheartedly build the ecosystem and community. In 2025, there are plenty of good projects, but the talent reserve in blockchain web3 is still in its early stages, which is why CZ is strategically laying out talent cultivation. There are too many projects and only so many people; a project with a soaring token value is undoubtedly far more tempting to builders than a token that continually breaks new lows without rebound.
This is by no means unfounded; according to data metrics from Dune Analytics, the number of active users of CELO has experienced a cliff-like drop, and the community is full of complaints due to the bottomless decline in token prices, suffering immensely.
When people's hearts are scattered, how can the team continue to lead? A good project paired with a strong token will naturally have a great scholar to argue for it.
If the drop in token price is the first apparent reason, then the market maker's trading techniques are fatal from the perspective of bystanders. It is crucial to understand that the most detestable trading methods are almost entirely occupied by this market maker.
1. Raising sales. It seems that every time the market maker raises the price, it is to sell off, and this market maker is one of the few who knew the inside story, not only avoiding the black swan event on October 11 but also raising prices in advance to realize profits.
2. Deceptive trading 'pump and dump'. In addition to providing liquidity, it lays out a large number of false orders, with retail investors opening positions and then being accurately targeted for explosive sell-offs, distorting the real supply and demand.
All of this has led CELO into a vicious cycle: ignored - ecological decay - price drop - ignored.
To be fair, CELO is a good project; it just hasn't encountered a market maker that can promote its growth. The mentality of this market maker is probably: since I need to raise prices to sell off, raising the price will naturally attract fools to take over. However, in today's increasingly mature market, are there really still so many fools willing to pay for a project that is usually obscure?
