Popular web browser company Opera and Ethereum Layer 2 Celo are restructuring a longstanding commercial partnership in a bid to strengthen their alliance.

Celo, subject to community approval, is looking to give a one-time allocation of 160 million CELO tokens to Opera from Celo's treasury. The grant, equating to 16% of CELO’s maximum supply, worth about $12 million total, would make Opera one of the largest holders of CELO and turn it, in theory, from a simple distribution partner into a committed long-term network stakeholder.

CELO is up 4.58% to $0.081, according to The Block’s data.

Celo, a mobile-focused blockchain built for low-cost global payments, already pays a U.S. dollar-denominated quarterly grant to Opera to help expand its MiniPay ecosystem. 

In 2023, the Celo community passed a proposal to pay $568,182 worth of CELO tokens quarterly to Opera to fund its deployment in Opera’s burgeoning Mini App ecosystem, a deal set to end in the first quarter of this year. The funds were targeted towards co-marketing opportunities, user rewards, and related costs.

In Thursday’s proposal, Celo notes over 60 million Opera browser users have earned Mini App rewards and “are positioned to redeem them as USD₮ within MiniPay,” the bespoke wallet Celo provides.

“Since MiniPay’s launch, Opera and Celo have expanded the self-custodial stablecoin wallet to serve 66+ countries, facilitating over 400 million transactions, and growing to more than 14 million users,” Celo wrote, noting MiniPay has over 4.23 million weekly active USD₮ users.

Similar to the original deal, Opera and Celo would agree on three-year terms, with Opera committing not to sell the tokens during the period. The funds would be sent in a one-time transfer to an Opera-controlled Safe wallet.

Funding for the deal would come from Celo’s unreleased treasury, which in practice means boosting the circulating supply of CELO tokens. The Block’s data shows 597.6 million tokens in circulation.

Celo also proposed capping the voting power connected to these released tokens to 10% of the total staked CELO in a bid to “maintain governance balance” and prevent Opera from exercising unchecked power.

If approved, the companies would redouble MiniPay expansion efforts in Latin America and Southeast Asia and continue to fund Mini App adoption and development. The governance proposal does not mention an explicit date range for the discussion period or a target for a vote.

Celo, originally a standalone Layer 1 blockchain, completed its transition to become an Ethereum Layer 2 network using the OP Stack last year after about two years of development.