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Buy Celo in Canada

Celo made simple

Everything you need to know about Celo and how to start investing in it.

Current Price

$1.11 CAD

-$0.001023 (-0.09%) past 24 hours

Market Cap The value of the entire supply of a specific cryptocurrency or token. It’s calculated by taking the price of a coin/token and multiplying it by the total number of that coin/token in circulation.: $1,112,841,278.69
Circulating Supply The amount of coins that have already been created and are available in the market.: $533,817,831
24h low - high range Low-high range over the past 24 hours.: $1.03 - $1.14

Celo 101

Celo is a blockchain primed for payments. The idea is that, using Celo’s mobile apps, you can send money — in the form of the Celo cryptocurrency — to anyone in the world using just their phone number. Companies like Deutsche Telekom, Opera and the Grameen Foundation are already working with the technology.

Celo launched its mainnet — the official version of its blockchain — in April 2020. It supports smart contracts, the bit of blockchain tech that allows for programmable cash and decentralized applications.

Celo uses two main types of cryptocurrencies to power its blockchain. The first is CELO, a governance coin. This is a cryptocurrency that holders can use to influence what happens on the platform and the parameters by which it operates. The second is the Celo Dollar, also known as cUSD. This is a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. These cryptocurrencies allow users to benefit from the features unique to blockchains, like decentralization, speed (in some cases) and privacy, without exposing themselves to the volatility inherent to so many cryptocurrencies.

cUSD maintains its value in a similar fashion to a far larger decentralized stablecoin, DAI — through overcollateralized reserves of other cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin or Ether. Celo also supports two other stablecoins: cEURO, pegged to the euro, and cREAL, pegged to the Brazilian real, although the markets for these are far smaller than cUSD’s market cap of $83 million.

It should be stressed that Celo is its own blockchain — it is not a set of smart contracts that sits atop another blockchain, like how USDC sits atop Ethereum. As such, Celo supports its own network of decentralized finance protocols. But, like rival blockchains Avalanche and Fantom, the Celo blockchain is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This means that it’s easy for Ethereum developers to port their apps over to Celo.

Still, the network is comparatively small when stacked up against other DeFi markets — just $387 million in a market that holds about $200 billion in value, as of March 14, 2022.

Celo increases the speed of its blockchain by using a complicated cryptographic technique called zk-SNARK. This allows mobile blockchain nodes to verify transactions while sharing a minimal amount of data. The Celo blockchain itself is what is known as a proof-of-stake blockchain, meaning that you can offer assets on the blockchain as collateral to secure the network and validate transactions. Staking also earns you rewards in the form of more Celo coins.

Since proof-of-stake rewards those who lock up the most coins, it can benefit those who already have a lot of money, but it’s also far easier on the environment than proof-of-work systems like Bitcoin and Litecoin. In fact, Celo claims that its blockchain is carbon neutral; in May 2021, the community even voted to allocate 0.5% of CELO reserves to carbon credit programs.

Celo is a blockchain primed for payments. The idea is that, using Celo’s mobile apps, you can send money — in the form of the Celo cryptocurrency — to anyone in the world using just their phone number. Companies like Deutsche Telekom, Opera and the Grameen Foundation are already working with the technology.

Celo launched its mainnet — the official version of its blockchain — in April 2020. It supports smart contracts, the bit of blockchain tech that allows for programmable cash and decentralized applications.

Celo uses two main types of cryptocurrencies to power its blockchain. The first is CELO, a governance coin. This is a cryptocurrency that holders can use to influence what happens on the platform and the parameters by which it operates. The second is the Celo Dollar, also known as cUSD. This is a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. These cryptocurrencies allow users to benefit from the features unique to blockchains, like decentralization, speed (in some cases) and privacy, without exposing themselves to the volatility inherent to so many cryptocurrencies.

cUSD maintains its value in a similar fashion to a far larger decentralized stablecoin, DAI — through overcollateralized reserves of other cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin or Ether. Celo also supports two other stablecoins: cEURO, pegged to the euro, and cREAL, pegged to the Brazilian real, although the markets for these are far smaller than cUSD’s market cap of $83 million.

It should be stressed that Celo is its own blockchain — it is not a set of smart contracts that sits atop another blockchain, like how USDC sits atop Ethereum. As such, Celo supports its own network of decentralized finance protocols. But, like rival blockchains Avalanche and Fantom, the Celo blockchain is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This means that it’s easy for Ethereum developers to port their apps over to Celo.

Still, the network is comparatively small when stacked up against other DeFi markets — just $387 million in a market that holds about $200 billion in value, as of March 14, 2022.

Celo increases the speed of its blockchain by using a complicated cryptographic technique called zk-SNARK. This allows mobile blockchain nodes to verify transactions while sharing a minimal amount of data. The Celo blockchain itself is what is known as a proof-of-stake blockchain, meaning that you can offer assets on the blockchain as collateral to secure the network and validate transactions. Staking also earns you rewards in the form of more Celo coins.

Since proof-of-stake rewards those who lock up the most coins, it can benefit those who already have a lot of money, but it’s also far easier on the environment than proof-of-work systems like Bitcoin and Litecoin. In fact, Celo claims that its blockchain is carbon neutral; in May 2021, the community even voted to allocate 0.5% of CELO reserves to carbon credit programs.

More info

Official Celo Website

Why Wealthsimple Crypto?

Wealthsimple Crypto lets you buy and sell cryptocurrencies all in one easy-to-use app. And as Canada’s first regulated crypto platform, you can trust that your coins are in good hands. How simple is it?

Sign up in minutes right from your phone or laptop
Start trading crypto with as little as $1
No account minimums
No clunky dashboards — just one super simple app
Best of all: you don’t need to be an expert in crypto or blockchain to get started

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What can you do with Celo?

Celo is primarily designed for payments through mobile or desktop apps. You can download the Celo app ‘Valora’ on the Apple or Google app stores, or the ‘Celo Wallet’ on your desktop. Celo’s blockchain network is also supported by one of the largest Web3 wallets, MetaMask.

Celo’s main money-sending premise is that a phone number is just as unique an identifier as a bank account number or a crypto wallet address, but it’s slightly more personable. (The Celo Wallet, however, also has a separate wallet address.)

Celo has several native assets. The first is CELO, a volatile governance coin that you can hold to wield influence over the network. As well as using CELO as a voting chip, you can also stake the coin to earn extra CELO from the network’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, or trade it on cryptocurrency exchanges and brokerages, such as Wealthsimple Crypto.

The second is its set of stablecoins. Its most popular is cUSD, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar that’s useful as a medium of stable exchange. Celo also supports stablecoins for the euro and the Brazilian real.

Because Celo supports smart contracts, you can also play around with the nascent decentralized finance cottage industry that the blockchain is home to. According to DeFi Llama, a site that tracks DeFi markets, the largest protocol on Celo as of March 2022 is a platform called Mento.

As of March 2022, Mento accounts for a large part of the value held within DeFi smart contracts on Celo. It’s also responsible for helping cUSD maintain its peg to the U.S. dollar. When the price of cUSD rises above a dollar, traders can use CELO coins to arbitrage the price down, and vice versa — similar to the arbitrage mechanism that keeps the price of Terra USD (UST) in check.

Is Celo a smart investment?

Crypto carries risks — but generally speaking, our advice (regardless of whether you’re investing in Celo or stocks) is: never invest what you can’t afford to lose. The smartest way to grow your money long term is with a diversified, low-cost portfolio that tracks the market.

How we keep your Celo safe

As Canada’s first regulated crypto trading platform, we’re required to meet certain requirements — like using only qualified custodians (like Coinbase Custody) for cold storage.

FYI: Wealthsimple Crypto is not an exchange itself. Instead, we work with multiple exchanges to give you the best Celo prices.

And to make sure your coins are extra protected, we’ve partnered with Coincover for an extra layer of security.

If you’re holding crypto outside of Wealthsimple, that’s no problem. You can safely transfer your Celo to your Wealthsimple account in just a few taps.

More info about Celo

Want to take a deeper dive? Check out these articles about Celo and the world of crypto.

Explore all articles on Crypto

Ready to get started?

Download the Wealthsimple Trade app, create your account, and start trading Celo with just $1. It’s that simple.

FAQs

Celo is a blockchain designed with mobile payments in mind – you can send payments to people just by using their phone number. The blockchain operates two main types of native coins. CELO, a volatile governance coin, which is used in tandem with other cryptocurrencies to keep the price of the second coins, stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, euro and Brazilian real, in check.

When the Celo blockchain mainnet launched in April 2020, it released 600 million of its native currency, the CELO coin, into circulation. As of March 14, 2022, there are 427 million CELO coins in circulation, or 42.7 of the platform’s maximum supply of $1 billion. The remaining coins will be allocated over time through staking and validator rewards, plus whenever vesting schedules allow early investors and developers to unlock coins. By 2050, there should be about 926 million CELO coins in circulation.

You can trade CELO on decentralized or centralized exchanges. Decentralized exchanges native to Celo include Mento and Ubeswap, although cross-chain DEXes like SushiSwap also support the blockchain. You can also trade CELO and many tokens associated with the network, like its suite of stablecoins, on centralized crypto exchanges. You can also stake your CELO coins in Celo DeFi protocols, or directly within the protocol to earn validator rewards.

Yep! When you open a Wealthsimple Crypto account, you can get started with anywhere from $1 to $1,500 instantly.

Generally speaking, the CRA treats cryptocurrencies as a commodity. Here’s what they say:

Any income from transactions involving cryptocurrency is generally treated as business income or as a capital gain, depending on the circumstances. Similarly, if earnings qualify as business income or as a capital gain then any losses are treated as business losses or capital losses.

Always keep solid records of any Celo transactions. If you use Wealthsimple Crypto to buy or sell cryptocurrencies, we’ll generate some of those tax documents for you.

Celo’s current market cap is 1,112,841,279.

The current price for Celo in Canadian dollars is $1.11.

Buying Celo with Wealthsimple is, well, simple. The first thing you need to do is open and fund a Crypto account in the Wealthsimple Trade app. You can connect your bank account and add up to $1,500 instantly.

From there, follow these steps: 1. Tap the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of your screen 2. Type in Celo 3. Tap Buy 4. Enter the dollar value of cryptocurrency you'd like to buy and tap Continue 5. Review the order details and tap Confirm order

You can choose between two different order types when buying Celo. A market order lets you buy or sell crypto immediately at the best available price at the time. A limit order lets you buy or sell crypto at a specific price or better.

You can withdraw funds from the cash balance in your Crypto account and move those funds to your bank account. Withdrawals typically take around 2 - 3 business days.

A crypto wallet — often called a “hot wallet” — is a location for holding crypto “on-chain” (i.e. linked to the blockchain versus off-chain cold storage.) Many users use wallet applications to help them manage their blockchain addresses, since each chain uses its own addresses.