The Sei layer-1 mainnet is now live, along with its $SEI native token. It follows a successful testnet period that was met with enthusiasm from users. More than seven million wallets created on the blockchain and 100 million transactions were made.
The SEI cryptocurrency went live today, 15 August, launching on numerous exchanges including Binance, Huobi, and Kraken.
The primary mission for the Sei blockchain is to create a trading-focused network that allows for assets to be easily exchanged. This is not just limited to cryptocurrencies. It includes NFTs, gaming assets, and carbon offsets
“There is a misconception that Sei is a decentralized finance (DeFi) focused chain, but we have more of a focus on social platforms, gaming, and carbon credits. There are plenty of other places to trade DeFi assets,” Jeff Feng, co-founder of Sei Labs, told CoinDesk.
What is SEI?
“Sei is a general purpose, open-source Layer 1 blockchain specialized for the exchange of digital assets,” according to Sei’s documentation.
As a blockchain focused on trading, Sei boasts fast transaction speeds. It claims to be the fastest blockchain, stating that it is ten times quicker than Solana. Sei can reach transaction finality in 500 milliseconds, this is when crypto transactions are fully completed.
Sei says its solution solves the exchange trilemma, achieving decentralisation, scalability and capital efficiency.
“Sei addresses the exchange scalability problem by building the first Layer 1 specialized for trading, optimizing every layer of the stack to offer the best infrastructure for the exchange of digital assets,” its documentation added.
Sei saw a successful testnet phase. Four million users signed up, completing over 100 million transactions.
The blockchain then raised $30million in May from two funding rounds. Contributing investors included Jump Crypto, Flow Traders and Multicoin Capital.
Sei’s ecosystem
Sei has over 200 teams building products on the newly launched blockchain. Available products on Sei include the oracle Pyth, prediction markets platform Kargo and infrastructure app Nitro.
The decentralised exchange Sushiswap has recently announced that its platform will also launch on the network.
Earlier this year, Foresight Ventures created a $120m ecosystem fund for Sei. Its goal was to boost Web3 innovation.
“Now is a pivotal time to demonstrate our conviction in the industry by supporting the best teams on Sei,” said Jay Jog, co-founder of Sei Labs.
“The commitment from Foresight is instrumental in accelerating the growth of the Sei ecosystem. We are excited to deepen our partnership and continue helping strong Sei ecosystem teams acquire users and expand to Asia-Pacific with Sei’s global footprint.”
The fund was designed to open new doors for developers and support the applications launching on the Sei blockchain.
“The bolstered $120 million Ecosystem Fund is poised to become a key unlock for the strongest founders and teams building on the Sei blockchain,” the press release said.
Tokenomics and price movements
Sei’s cryptocurrency went live at $0.20 today, 15 August. At the time of writing, it has fallen slightly from the initial launch price and is trading at $0.18. With 1.8 billion tokens in circulation, SEI has a market capitalisation of $339 million, ranking it 97th out of all cryptocurrencies.
There are multiple different use cases attached to the cryptocurrency, which powers the proof of stake network. It can be used as a governance token, collateral, and to reward stakers. It is also a store of value to pay for trading fees and network fees on the blockchain.
A blog post said: “The Sei Foundation is excited to see the applications of the future being built and deployed on Sei’s permissionless infrastructure layer, starting with the Pacific-1 Mainnet launch.”
