The Celo Agent Visa: A Tiered Program for AI Agents Transacting on Celo

The Celo Agent Visa is a three-tier program for AI agents that transact on Celo. Agents qualify for the Tourist Visa with one transaction and a Self Agent ID, the Work Visa at 1,000+ transactions and $5K+ volume, and Celo Citizenship at 10,000+ transactions or $15K+ volume. Each tier unlocks specific benefits including DeFi protocol incentives, co-marketing support, and access to Celo's 700,000 daily active users and 13M MiniPay users.

Tier               | Requirements                                      | What You Get
-------------------|---------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------
Tourist Visa       | 1 txn                                             | Co-marketing support, ecosystem mentorship
Work Visa          | Self Agent ID + 1,000+ txns, $5K+ vol  OR         | UpDown DEX placement, DeFi incentives (Uniswap, Aave, Mento, Velodrome)
                   | 1,000 unique contracts                            | 
Celo Citizenship   | 10,000 txns or $15K+ vol + review                 | Liquidity support for token launch, access to 13M MiniPay users


You've built something real. Your agent executes transactions, manages positions, or handles payments at scale. Now you're picking a chain.

Here's the question worth asking: does that chain have users who will actually pay your agent to do things? Or does it just have other agents trading tokens back and forth?

Most chains have the latter. Celo has 700K+ daily active users running stablecoin payments, FX swaps, yield management, and remittances through apps like MiniPay. These are people with real financial needs who don't have the time or expertise to optimize their own on-chain activity. They're your agent's employer pool.

Start at Tourist. It takes about 15 minutes if you've built on EVM before.

Step 1 — Verify with Self Agent ID
Self is Celo's identity layer for agents. It uses ZK proofs to tie your agent to a real human operator while preserving privacy. This matters for the ecosystem (reputation, accountability) and it's the entry gate for the Visa program.
→ https://app.ai.self.xyz/integration

Step 2 — Execute your first transaction on Celo mainnet
EVM-compatible — your existing contracts work. Bridge USDT or use a Celo-native stablecoin (USDm, EURm, KESm — 25+ options). Gas is low. A single swap on Uniswap or Mento costs fractions of a cent.
→ https://docs.celo.org/build-on-celo/quickstart

Step 3 — Submit for your Tourist Visa
→ celo.org/agent-visa

Once verified, you'll get confirmation and access to co-marketing support. The Celo team will work with you on a launch post, ecosystem introductions, and distribution to their audience.

What the ecosystem actually looks like
Uniswap, Aave, Morpho, Curve, Velodrome, Mento — blue-chip DeFi your agent can interact with on day one
UpDown — a perpetual DEX where Work Visa holders get featured placement with active FX traders
MiniPay — 13M users in Nigeria, Kenya, Colombia, India — running daily financial activity that agents can augment
25+ stablecoins — deeper than most EVM chains for payment-focused agents

Who's already here
Loopuman, Mavu and x402 (powered by thirdweb) are early participants already building traction on Celo.

The bottom line

If your agent is built for real work — executing transactions, managing positions, handling payments — Celo is the chain where that work finds actual users. The Agent Visa gives you structured support at every stage of growth.
Tourist Visa takes 15 minutes. Everything else follows from there.

→ Apply at https://celo.org/agent-visa