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In this guide you can explore tooling and infrastructure for building DeFi on Celo.

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Overview

DeFi on Celo is designed for builders who want to create accessible, stable, and inclusive financial systems. This guide walks you through the key tools and infrastructure available for developing decentralized finance applications on Celo. Stablecoins are at the heart of DeFi, they provide price stability, reduce volatility, and power seamless transactions. Celo’s ecosystem is uniquely optimized for stablecoins, supporting real-world use cases that go beyond speculation. By building on Celo, you’re contributing to a global movement that makes financial access open and affordable for everyone. Explore below how to integrate stablecoins, exchanges, and oracles into your next DeFi project.

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Why Stablecoins Matter

Stablecoins are digital assets pegged to a stable reserve, such as fiat currency or a basket of assets. They provide key benefits in DeFi and financial transactions and financial inclusion:
Check out “Build with Stablecoins” for an extensive list of all stablecoins on Celo.
  • Price Stability – Unlike volatile cryptocurrencies, stablecoins maintain a predictable value.
  • Low-Cost Transactions – Sending stablecoins on Celo costs significantly less than on traditional blockchains.
  • Borderless Access – Users can send and receive stablecoins globally, without needing a bank account.
  • Programmability – Stablecoins can be used in smart contracts to enable lending, savings, and remittances.
  • Financial Inclusion – Stablecoins empower unbanked and underbanked populations with access to digital financial services.
Celo is uniquely positioned to advance the adoption of stable digital assets through the Mento Protocol—a decentralized stablecoin platform built on Celo. Mento enables the creation of local stablecoins that are algorithmically stabilized and backed by crypto collateral. This approach helps users access a price-stable digital currency that is aligned with their local economy. The goal of Mento is simple: to provide a stable asset for every country in the world. These stable assets can be used for everyday payments, savings, remittances, and commerce—empowering individuals in regions with high inflation or limited access to traditional banking infrastructure.

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Examples of DeFi Applications on Celo

Celo supports a vibrant ecosystem of DeFi protocols that utilize stablecoins:

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Lending & Borrowing

  • Aave – Decentralized lending and borrowing using stablecoins.
  • PWN - Fixed rate lending

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Exchanges

Find all Exchanges here. For cross-chain exchanges check out the bridges and cross-chain messaging pages.
  • Velodrome – Velodrome is a decentralized exchange where you can execute low-fee swaps, deposit tokens to earn rewards, and actively participate in the onchain economy.
  • Uniswap – Swaps and liquidity pools for stablecoins.
  • Ubeswap – A Celo-native DEX optimized for mobile users.
  • Carbon DeFi by Bancor – Empowering users with onchain automation and superior orderbook-like features.

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Liquidity Incentives

  • Steer Protocol – Automated liquidity strategies.
  • Merkl – Rewarding liquidity providers with stablecoin incentives.
  • Ichi – Automated Liquidity Strategies for DeFi Yield.

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Oracles

Oracles are a crucial part to get real time price information on tokens. Speed is crucial when it comes to building DeFi applications, and you should not rely on web2 APIs for price feeds. Find all Oracles in the tooling section.

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Human-Centered Security Tools

  • Noves - Deciphering onchain activity and standardizing the results
    • Human‑readable DeFi, ReFi & bridge txs
    • Pre‑sign safety simulations in any Celo wallet
    • Real‑time CELO / cUSD / stCELO pricing

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Get Started

Developers and entrepreneurs can leverage Celo’s infrastructure to build next-generation stablecoin applications. By building on Celo, you’re not just creating DeFi applications, you’re enabling real-world financial inclusion and empowering users globally.
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