Coin columns · Mainnet Province
Sei (SEI): Base Coin of a Parallel, Trading-Focused Layer-1 Chain
Fast-finality layer 1, now centered on a parallel EVM
SEI is the base coin of the Sei Network layer-1 blockchain, used for fees, validator staking and governance votes. Built for fast trading, the chain went through a major overhaul in 2025–2026, dropping its Cosmos-style features in favor of an Ethereum-compatible (EVM) core.
1. A layer 1 built for trading speed
Sei was created by Sei Labs, led by Jeff Feng and Jayendra Jog, and launched its mainnet and SEI coin in August 2023. It was first built with the Cosmos SDK (a toolkit for making chains) as a trading-focused chain, and is known for block finality in under a second.
SEI has an initial supply of 10 billion; it pays network fees (gas), is delegated to validators (staking) to secure the chain and earn rewards, and carries governance votes. On the Crypto Nation map, SEI is the city-hall tower of Mainnet Province, the area for standalone layer-1 chains, because it is the chain’s own base coin.
2. Parallel EVM and a slimmer chain
Sei’s core idea is parallel execution: instead of processing transactions one by one, it runs them at the same time optimistically and re-runs only those that clash over the same data, so heavy contention reduces efficiency. Sei V2 in 2024 applied this to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), so apps written for Ethereum can move over with few changes.
SIP-3, accepted by the community in May 2025, removes Cosmos-style accounts and features so the chain runs on EVM addresses only. Sei Labs tested it on testnet in early 2026 and applied v6.4 to mainnet in April, which also shut off incoming IBC (the Cosmos inter-chain transfer standard) deposits. Exchanges and wallets had to finish their integrations accordingly.
3. Uses and key dates
Sei aims to host financial apps such as decentralized exchanges, lending and stablecoin payments, and Circle’s USDC is available natively on it. With the EVM-only design, Ethereum wallets and developer tools work as they are. A coming upgrade called Giga, announced in 2025, which adds several concurrent block proposers among other changes, targets 200,000 transactions per second, a goal rather than measured usage.
Key dates: mainnet in August 2023, V2 with the parallel EVM in 2024, SIP-3 approval in May 2025, and v6.4 on mainnet in April 2026. The remaining Cosmos functions were scheduled to be retired by mid-2026.
4. Things to know
Big changes to a chain carry risk. Cosmos-side apps, wallets and exchange links must move to the EVM model, and Sei Labs warned that assets that arrived by IBC should be moved out early. Parallel execution and new consensus are less proven technology, so outages or bugs remain possible.
As with many new chains, team, investor and foundation allocations unlock on a schedule, and development is led by one company and its foundation, so decentralization is limited. Competition from other parallel-EVM chains is intense.
Written from information public up to October 2026. It does not recommend or rate any coin and is not investment advice. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.