The post Celo Launches Agent Visa Program to Attract AI Builders with DeFi Incentives appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Peter Zhang
Mar 24, 2026 15:09

Celo introduces tiered Agent Visa program offering liquidity support and access to 14M MiniPay users for AI agents that prove real utility on-chain.

Celo Foundation unveiled what it calls the world’s first “work visa” for AI agents on March 24, a tiered incentive program designed to lure agent developers away from speculation-heavy chains and toward its stablecoin-focused ecosystem. CELO traded at $0.081 at announcement, up 4.34% on the day. The Agent Visa program creates three tiers—Tourist, Work Visa, and Citizenship—each unlocking progressively larger benefits based on on-chain activity metrics rather than token holdings or hype. The Tier Structure Entry-level Tourist Visa requires just one transaction on Celo, granting co-marketing support and founder mentorship. The Work Visa tier demands Self Agent ID verification plus either 1,000 transactions with $5,000 volume or 1,000 unique contract interactions. That unlocks featured placement on UpDown’s perpetual DEX and DeFi incentives across Uniswap, Aave, Mento, and Velodrome. The top Citizenship tier—requiring 10,000 transactions or $15,000 volume plus manual review—offers liquidity support for agent token launches and distribution access to MiniPay’s 14 million users across Nigeria, Kenya, Colombia, and India. Why This Matters for Builders Celo’s pitch takes direct aim at agent ecosystems where speculation dominates. The foundation claims some competing chains have registered over 22,000 agents with “just a handful” remaining active, while others saw 90% of agentic payment activity disappear within weeks. The program launches with Virtuals Protocol as a Day One partner, enabling Virtuals-built agents to qualify for the visa program through a single transaction. Self provides the identity layer, using zero-knowledge proofs to verify that agents are tied to real humans without exposing user data. Celo currently hosts over 1,000 registered agents on its 8004scan.io tracker, with Loopuman leading…

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Filed under: News - @ March 25, 2026 2:29 pm