Opera (NASDAQ: OPRA) is deepening its push into digital finance after announcing a major expansion of its MiniPay wallet, adding support for Tether’s USDT stablecoin and Tether Gold (XAU₮). The move marks a significant milestone for the self-custodial wallet and signals Opera’s growing ambition to position MiniPay as a mainstream financial tool, particularly across emerging markets. Opera Limited (OPRA) shares surged 13.53% to $14.10 in regular trading.
MiniPay, which is built on the Celo blockchain, now enables users to hold, send, and receive both USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin with a market capitalization exceeding $186 billion, and Tether Gold, a tokenized asset backed by physical gold stored in Swiss vaults. The expansion introduces both digital dollar stability and gold-backed value preservation into a single mobile-first wallet experience.
Rapid Adoption Across Emerging Markets
Opera said the integration is aimed at simplifying access to reliable financial assets for users who face currency volatility, limited banking access, or high remittance costs.
Commenting on the partnership, Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, stated, “By supporting USD₮ and XAUt0 in MiniPay, we’re helping create tools that make digital assets genuinely useful, whether for sending money, saving in dollars, or protecting value in gold. Financial inclusion is not just about technology; it’s about building systems that work for everyday life.”
The growth of MiniPay provides context for the market’s strong reaction. The wallet has surpassed 12.6 million activated wallets and has processed more than 350 million transactions in total. Adoption has been particularly strong in emerging markets, including Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. In the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, on-chain user growth accelerated by 50%, highlighting increasing demand for mobile-first financial solutions.
Celo Blockchain Drives Scale and Liquidity
The Celo blockchain has played a central role in MiniPay’s expansion. Opera noted that Celo has become the fastest-growing native USDT chain, posting 506% user growth as stablecoin usage accelerated. Celo’s low fees and fast settlement times have made it well-suited for high-volume consumer payments.
Usage metrics from December 2025 underscore MiniPay’s growing scale. The wallet facilitated 96 million USDT transfers during the month, with a combined $153 million in value sent and received. Jørgen Arnesen, Executive Vice President of Mobile at Opera, said the company’s focus remains on delivering “real financial access” by embedding simple, intuitive financial tools directly into everyday mobile experiences.
The addition of Tether Gold further broadens MiniPay’s appeal, offering users exposure to gold alongside dollar-pegged stablecoins. Together, the assets strengthen MiniPay’s role as both a payments platform and a store-of-value solution, reinforcing Opera’s strategy to evolve beyond a browser company into a global digital finance player. Meanwhile, Tether also announced yesterday the open-sourcing of its Mining OS (MOS), an operating system built to manage, monitor, and automate Bitcoin mining operations at scale. Designed to provide end-to-end visibility across mining sites, MOS consolidates hardware, energy, infrastructure, and operational data into a single unified platform. The open-source release of MOS was officially unveiled at the 2026 Plan ₿ Forum in San Salvador.
