Celo Gold's mainnet launched today, May 19, enabling token holders from the network's $10 million token sale to transfer their cGLD tokens on-chain. The Celo Foundation announced the news this mornin
Celo Gold's mainnet launched today, May 19, enabling token holders from the network's $10 million token sale to transfer their cGLD tokens on-chain.
The Celo Foundation announced the news this morning on Medium. The team devoted two and a half years to building the network before reaching this point. Over 100 validators spread across the globe provided the infrastructure and security that made the launch possible. Celo credited these validators in its announcement, saying they showed "commitment, passion, [and] expertise." The company noted: "It's these independent validators spread across the globe that made the Celo Gold (cGLD) network happen."
Celo operated a testnet it called the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) before launching the mainnet. The RC1 launched April 22, 2020 and ran without major problems. Three weeks later, Celo released its mainnet, allowing exchanges to begin trading ERC-20 tokens.
Celo sold 10 million cGLD tokens at $1 per unit through the auction, with all units moving in less than 12 hours. Demand exceeded the available supply. Celo received 3,996 registrations and 761 bids from people in 132 countries. The average bid price reached $5.02 per token. More than half of all bids exceeded $3, and over a quarter topped $9. Celo said in a blog post that while the auction was oversubscribed, the team sought to maintain fairness by holding the $1 price.
The auction brought in $10 million for Celo. In 2019, the company had raised an additional $30 million, bringing the company's total funding to $40 million.
With mainnet now active, cGLD holders can send and receive tokens. The company has additional plans on its roadmap. The team intends to launch Celo Dollars (cUSD), a stablecoin. Celo plans to release a mainnet wallet and use oracle contracts to pull cGLD price data from external sources on-chain, giving cUSD holders more options. The Celo network runs on Proof-of-Stake consensus and provides infrastructure for fast, secure cryptocurrency transactions.
