Shares of browser maker Opera rose more than 17% after the opening bell after the company announced it is expanding support for Tether’s USDT stablecoin and tether gold (XAUT0) in its self-custodial crypto wallet MiniPay.
The move provides broader access to dollar-backed and gold-backed cryptocurrencies for millions of users in emerging markets.
Shares of Opera (OPRA) fell over the past week to a low of $12.40 before the announcement helped them rise to $14.65. MiniPay, which the company says has 12.6 million activated wallets, will now allow users to use these tokens “without navigating the complexities of the blockchain.”
The wallet, which boasts more than 3.64 million onchain users, processed over $153 million in stablecoin transactions in December alone, according to Opera.
MiniPay is not a financial service per se, but connects users to on- and off-ramp providers such as Binance, Partna and Fonbank, helping to bridge the gap between fiat and crypto economies. Last year, the company rolled out a “Pay like a local” feature that allows users to pay in Argentina using Mercado Pago and in Brazil using Pix, the instant payment systems in each country
Since then, the feature has expanded to include instant SEPA payments in Europe and instant bank transfers in Nigeria.
Tether reported earlier this month that it earned over $10 billion in net income by 2025, driven by the growth of its USDT stablecoin and its underlying US Treasury holdings. The firm has been buying up to $1 billion in gold per month as it bets on the precious metal alongside BTC.
