6 min readSei’s backstory
Sei is a specialized Layer 1 blockchain designed to optimize decentralised trading applications. It aims to provide a high-performance infrastructure tailored for trading apps, addressing the limitations of existing blockchain platforms in handling high-frequency and high-volume trading.
It was founded in 2022 with notable support from high-profile investors such as Coinbase, GSR, Flow Traders, and later, Circle. Its core development team, Sei Labs, is based in San Francisco, while the Sei Foundation is driving its global decentralisation through various funds and grants, most notably in Japan.
Key features of Sei
Sei introduces several innovations to enhance trading efficiency. Its Twin Turbo consensus mechanism reduces block finality time to approximately 300 milliseconds, making it one of the fastest blockchains available. This speed is achieved through intelligent block propagation and optimistic block processing, which streamline transaction validation and consensus. Overall, Sei claims a maximum transactional throughput of 12,500 transactions per second, over Solana (10,000 TPS) and Ethereum (15 TPS).
The blockchain also incorporates a native order-matching engine at the Layer 1 level. This feature allows decentralised exchanges (DEXs) built on Sei to operate more efficiently by handling order placements and executions directly on-chain, reducing latency and improving user experience.
Additionally, Sei employs market-based parallelisation, enabling the simultaneous processing of multiple transactions. This approach increases throughput and ensures that the network can handle a high volume of trading activities without congestion.
Sei native token: SEI
SEI is the native token of the Sei network and serves multiple purposes:
It is the fee token, used to pay for transaction fees on the network, the same way ETH is paying for Ethereum transactions or SOL is paying for transactions on Solana.
It also acts as a governance token, enabling holders to participate in decisions that shape the network’s development.
SEI also underpins the network’s security, as validators stake the token to help secure and stabilize the system.
As of 9 June 2025, its market capitalisation has exceeded $1 billion, well positioned amongst the Top 30 layer-1 tokens.
Ecosystem and development
Sei’s ecosystem is expanding, with a variety of decentralised applications (dApps) and services being developed to take advantage of its high-speed infrastructure. Decentralised exchanges (DEXs) and lending protocols are the most prominent dApps on the network, with examples including the money market platform Yei Finance and the trading platform Sailor.finance. Sei supports smart contracts written in Rust, offering developers a robust and secure environment for building applications. Over the past year, gaming activity on the network has also seen a significant surge, succeeding where many other networks have struggled: hosting gaming hits such as World of Dypians and Europe Fantasy League, both of which have recorded over 50,000 daily transactions in 2025.
Among the latest significant developments related to Sei, it is worth noting that its qualities have been recognized by some institutions: for example, its network has been selected by the U.S. state of Wyoming’s Stable Token Commission as one of the shortlisted blockchains to issue its potential stablecoin, WYST.
The Sei team has also focused on interoperability, ensuring that the blockchain can interact seamlessly with other networks. This is facilitated through the use of the Cosmos SDK and Tendermint Core, which provide the foundation for cross-chain communication and integration.
In 2024, Sei launched its v2 upgrade to deploy the first-ever parallelized EVM, making it fully interoperable with Ethereum and other EVM network decentralised applications.
Bridging assets from other blockchains to Sei is facilitated through various third-party bridges recommended within the Sei application. These bridges support the transfer of stablecoins and other tokens, often offering features such as “gas on arrival” to provide users with the necessary SEI tokens to cover transaction fees upon arrival.
It is important to highlight that, in June 2025, Sei’s community advanced a proposal to deprecate support for the Cosmos architecture in order to focus solely on its EVM-based design. Although the timeline for this transition remains uncertain, the proposal offers a clearer view of Sei’s long-term ambitions and roadmap.
Metrics
Across various metrics, Sei has demonstrated a significant increase in activity since its launch, particularly following the deployment of v2. Its Total Value Locked (TVL)—which represents the total amount of financial assets hosted on the network—has nearly tripled year-to-date, reaching over $600 million as of 30 June 2025.
Network activity has also grown markedly compared to other leading networks such as Aptos, Cardano, Polygon PoS, and Sui. As of 30 June 2025, Sei recorded the highest number of daily active addresses among them.
This upward trend reflects a growing demand for the qualities offered by the Sei network.
In summary
Sei could represent a significant advancement in blockchain technology, specifically tailored for decentralised trading applications. Its emphasis on speed, efficiency, and interoperability positions it as a promising platform for developers and users seeking a high-performance trading environment, as well as a potential secure network capable of supporting high-demand use cases such as video games.
Pros:
Designed to be a highly scalable blockchain capable of reducing latency for real-world use cases such as trading and gaming applications.
An interoperable network compatible with the most widely used EVM protocols.
Signs of fast-growing activity, as reflected in usage metrics such as daily active addresses, increasing TVL, and transaction volume.
Cons:
Launched in 2022 with major upgrades in 2024, Sei is still a relatively new blockchain without the maturity and long-term stability track record of older chains like Ethereum or Solana
Smaller ecosystem compared to major chains, which still lags behind larger Layer 1 networks in terms of the number of dApps, integrations, and developer tooling.
A significant part of its architecture still relies on the Cosmos SDK, which comes with its own limitations and risks. However, in June, the community voted to deprecate Cosmos-based accounts in favor of transitioning to an EVM-only architecture.
