Sei (SEI) Cryptocurrency: Comprehensive Overview
Core Technology and Blockchain Architecture
Sei is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain built with the Cosmos SDK that focuses on speed, fairness, and scalability for digital asset trading and Web3 applications. Sei represents a pioneering approach within the blockchain domain, specifically designed to enhance the functionality and performance of decentralized exchanges (DEXes), recognized as the first sector-specific Layer 1 blockchain that focuses on optimizing trading processes.
Sei is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain combining parallel execution, advanced consensus mechanisms, and optimized storage to achieve web2-level throughput without sacrificing decentralization. Sei is designed to provide the performance of a custom blockchain while maintaining full compatibility with Ethereum's established developer ecosystem, allowing developers to deploy existing smart contracts written in Solidity or Vyper without requiring any changes.
Parallel Execution Engine
The core of Sei's performance is a parallel execution engine that employs optimistic parallelization. Unlike traditional blockchains that process transactions one by one, Sei runs multiple transactions simultaneously. By default, the system assumes transactions will not conflict and processes them in parallel. If a conflict is detected, only the specific conflicting transactions are re-executed sequentially, which maintains state consistency without halting the entire process. This approach is projected to deliver up to 40x higher throughput than purely sequential processing.
Storage and Data Layer
SeiDB improves storage and reduces blockchain bloat. It helps validators sync data 12x faster and reduces state size by 60%.
Consensus Mechanism and Network Security
Sei's consensus mechanism, often referred to as Twin Turbo Consensus, represents a suite of optimizations designed to achieve exceptionally low block finality times, targeting approximately 400 milliseconds. Central to Sei's performance is the Twin Turbo Consensus, an evolution of Cosmos' Tendermint consensus mechanism. While Tendermint provides a 6-second finality, Twin Turbo significantly reduces this to under 400 milliseconds.
The ~400ms target block time means transactions achieve probabilistic finality almost immediately, confirmed within a single block. Deterministic finality typically follows within two blocks (~800ms). This eliminates the long confirmation waits common on other chains.
Sei uses a delegated proof-of-stake (dPoS) model, where validators stake SEI to secure the network and earn rewards. As part of Sei's decentralized proof of stake mechanism, validators are responsible for securing the Sei blockchain and ensuring its accuracy. Validators run programs called full nodes which allow them to verify each transaction made on the Sei network. Validators propose blocks, vote on their validity, and add each new block to the chain.
Primary Use Cases and Applications
The platform is engineered to meet the high demands of DEXes, which are central to the crypto ecosystem, facilitating not just asset trading but also serving as platforms for NFT and in-game item exchanges. Sei's potential use cases and applications include decentralized exchanges, gaming platforms, and NFT marketplaces.
While traditional blockchains that process 10-100 transactions per second make it difficult to build responsive consumer applications, Sei's reported performance of over 12,500 TPS with sub-400ms finality is designed to enable more demanding use cases. This includes applications such as real-time gaming with instant state updates, social platforms capable of supporting thousands of concurrent users, interactive entertainment with complex user interactions, and high-frequency DeFi protocols that require rapid execution.
One of Sei's standout features is its built-in order-matching engine, which improves the execution of trades and helps prevent front-running — a common issue in blockchain-based trading.
Founding Team and Project History
Jeffrey Feng and Jayendra Jog co-founded Sei Labs in 2021, bringing complementary expertise from traditional finance and technology. Feng's background at Goldman Sachs and Coatue Management provided an understanding of trading systems and market infrastructure. At the same time, Jog's engineering experience at Robinhood brought expertise in building high-performance consumer applications.
Jayendra "Jay" Jog is the co-founder of Sei Labs, the team behind the Sei Network, a layer-one blockchain designed to enhance decentralized exchanges. Before founding Sei, he worked as a software engineer at Robinhood, where his experiences influenced his decision to build a decentralized trading platform.
The team secured over $30 million in funding from leading crypto investors, including Multicoin Capital, Jump Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, and Delphi Digital. Mainnet beta launched in 2023, with public materials and research portals documenting the August 2023 mainnet beta.
The Sei blockchain is also supported by the Sei Foundation, an independent entity dedicated to the growth of the ecosystem.
Tokenomics
Supply and Distribution
SEI has a maximum supply of 10 billion tokens. The Sei allocation includes Foundation at 9.00%, Binance Launchpool at 3.00%, Ecosystem Reserve at 48.00%, Team at 20.00% and Private Sale Investors at 20.00%.
As of late 2024, third-party data aggregators such as CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap reported approximately 3 billion SEI in circulation (figures update frequently as vesting and on-chain activity progress).
Token Functions
The SEI token is the native cryptocurrency of the Sei network. It plays a key role in securing the blockchain, powering transactions, and enabling governance. The native token, sei (SEI), is used for transaction fees, staking, and governance.
Inflation and Vesting
As of Q3 2024, the network's annualized inflation rate was approximately 7.7%, having peaked at 10.0% in Q1 2024. This inflation is used to incentivize network participation, particularly through staking. The data indicates a consistent monthly unlock of approximately 113 million SEI through July 2027, representing a steady increase of 1.77% to the circulating supply each month. This pattern of predictable, long-term vesting is a key feature of Sei's token distribution strategy.
Airdrops and Distribution
To further distribute SEI tokens and encourage participation, two airdrop batches were conducted: one for users who bridged assets from eligible blockchains and another for active users of the Sei blockchain.
Key Partnerships and Ecosystem Integrations
Partnerships with Circle (USDC), Apollo/Securitize (tokenized assets), Hamilton Lane ($200M+ in tokenized credit), and regulators support large-scale finance. Sei has partnered with renowned blockchain protocols like Axelar to maximize interoperability, due to which DeFi protocols, DEX, and dApps efficiently transfer liquidity amongst themselves, bridge, and even facilitate seamless communication with one another.
Sei also uses the Cosmos SDK and Tendermint Core, allowing it to connect with other blockchains via the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. Sei's pre-installation on 170 million Xiaomi phones annually starting Q2 2026 enables wallets for 680 million users and stablecoin payments in stores.
On April 4, 2024, the Sei Foundation launched the Sei Creator Fund, a $10m grants fund for both the creation of new projects and growth of existing NFT and Social projects on Sei. This fund is deployed in recognition of the community growth on Sei, designed to help scale Sei's NFT and Social ecosystems.
Competitive Advantages and Unique Value Proposition
Sei differentiates itself from other Layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum and Solana by its primary focus on optimizing for trading. Sei takes a different approach. By focusing solely on trading as its core use case, it has optimized every layer of its stack to offer the best infrastructure for trading apps and exchanges.
Sei is a Layer 1 that combines the advantages of Ethereum and Solana: the dominant development standard of Ethereum with the performance of Solana. The V2 update for Sei makes it the first parallelized EVM. Serving as a new scaling approach for the Ethereum ecosystem.
According to Sei, the network currently supports up to 12,500 transactions per second (TPS) through parallel execution and achieves finality in under 400 milliseconds. The platform maintains full EVM compatibility and, as of the latest data, holds over $600 million in Total Value Locked (TVL) with more than 800,000 daily active addresses.
Sei's matching engine also supports frequent batch auctioning, which aggregates all market orders and executes them at the same uniform clearing price. This approach discourages maximal extractable value (MEV) and ensures a fairer price for incoming market orders.
Current Development Activity and Roadmap
Sei V2 Upgrade
2024: EVM compatibility and performance upgrades. Official documentation at docs.sei.io describes the introduction of EVM support and parallel execution enhancements tailored for trading workloads. This parallel order execution allows Sei V2 to achieve transaction speeds up to 20,000 TPS (transactions per second)—significantly faster than most competing blockchains.
Sei Giga Upgrade
Looking ahead, the "Sei Giga" upgrade is designed to significantly increase these metrics, targeting a throughput of 5 gigagas per second. For its upcoming Sei Giga upgrade, the network will introduce Autobahn, a consensus protocol designed to reduce traditional blockchain bottlenecks. Instead of relying on single block producers, its multi-proposer architecture allows every validator to continuously propose transactions in parallel "lanes." Validators then vote on data availability using compact cryptographic proofs rather than downloading full blocks, separating consensus from data dissemination. The protocol also periodically commits a snapshot aggregating the latest proposals from all lanes, allowing multiple blocks to be finalized in a single consensus round and reducing communication overhead.
Ecosystem Growth
Since its mainnet beta launch in July 2024, the network's ecosystem has grown to include applications and infrastructure across several key categories. At this point, there are over 150 projects that are building on the Sei ecosystem. In Mainnet, there are over a dozen projects that are live and servicing user traffic.
Sei's total value locked (TVL) has surged to $363.1 million in Q1 2025, reflecting robust growth in its DeFi ecosystem.
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