Share this article

Opera Browser Adds Bitcoin Payments to Android Update

The enhanced crypto functionality will let Opera for android users make bitcoin payments from its built-in digital wallet and interact with dapps on TRON.

Updated Sep 13, 2021, 11:36 a.m. Published Oct 22, 2019, 7:00 a.m.
opera, android

The Opera web browser has added bitcoin e-commerce and TRON integration to its Android app, the company said.

The enhanced crypto functionality will let Opera for android users make bitcoin payments directly from its built-in digital wallet and interact with decentralized apps (dapps) on the TRON blockchain. It could increase crypto visibility among the browser’s claimed 300 million users.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters

Charles Hamel, Head of Crypto at Opera, told CoinDesk:

“Most people have heard of bitcoin and thus we saw it as important to support it and make this feature more familiar to a larger group of people.”

Of the top-five browsers chrome, safari, Samsung Internet, UC browser and Opera - Opera remains the only one to have digital wallet integration. Now it is another tech move by one of the web’s oldest apps.

Though technically a legacy product (Opera launched as a research project over two decades ago) the Norway-based web surfer pivoted towards crypto in the past year, regularly expanding digital wallet functionality to its mobile and desktop offerings.

In July 2018, Opera for Android piloted an ethereum digital wallet as a step towards “Web 3.0:” the vision of a decentralized future internet built on a blockchain. It then began studying blockchain “growth opportunities” with financial services advisors Ledger Capital that October.

Since then, Opera introduced a “web 3 ready” android browser, a crypto-friendly iOS app, a desktop browser with native digital wallet support, and partnered with a Swedish crypto broker to sell Scandinavians discounted ETH.

Hamel told CoinDesk that the apps are now synchronized and optimized for adoption of a future web3. But he said that adding bitcoin was a challenge, as much because of its differences as its use-cases.

“Bitcoin is a completely different beast that requires its own infrastructure and has a payment-focused usage scenario.”

Wallet image via Opera

More For You

Protocol Research: GoPlus Security

GP Basic Image

What to know:

  • As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
  • GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
  • Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

More For You

State Street and Galaxy to Launch Tokenized Liquidity Fund on Solana in 2026

State Street building in London (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)

The fund will run on Solana at launch and use PYUSD.

What to know:

  • State Street and Galaxy plan to launch SWEEP in early 2026, using PYUSD for around-the-clock investor flows on Solana.
  • Ondo Finance committed about $200 million to seed the tokenized liquidity fund, which will later expand to other chains.
  • The firms say the product brings traditional cash-management tools onto public blockchains for qualified institutions.