Sei (SEI) is the native token of Sei, a Layer-1 blockchain originally built on the Cosmos SDK and now transitioning to a fully EVM-compatible, parallelized chain. The network is designed to support high-throughput decentralized applications, particularly on-chain trading and other DeFi protocols.
SEI functions as the chain's gas token for transaction fees and as the asset staked by validators and delegators to secure the network. As of 2026-08-31, SEI traded at approximately $0.044.
Sei differentiates itself through a parallelized execution architecture aimed at high throughput for trading and DeFi rather than general-purpose smart contracts. Its "Giga" upgrade, announced 2026-05-29, targets 200,000 transactions per second and sub-400ms finality via three new components: the Ares execution engine, the Eidos storage engine, and a new Autobahn consensus mechanism.
Ares and Eidos are already live following a mainnet v6.6 upgrade. SEI captures this performance positioning as the required fee and staking asset, and chain TVL showed positive growth (+0.64% daily average) as of 2026-08-30, indicating rising on-chain usage.
SEI functions as both a utility and a governance token. As a utility token, it pays gas fees for transactions and smart contract execution on the Sei blockchain.
Holders also stake SEI with validators to help secure the network under proof-of-stake and earn staking rewards. As a governance token, SEI holders with stake delegated as of a voting period's end can vote on-chain on protocol proposals, including software upgrades, through the Cosmos SDK governance module, with support for splitting votes across multiple options.
Sei's token was deployed on-chain on 2023-05-22, about three months before Binance listed SEI for spot trading on 2023-08-15. Binance ran Sei as its 36th Launchpool project; users farmed SEI by staking BNB, TUSD, or FDUSD from 2023-08-02 to 2023-08-31, with 300 million SEI (3% of total supply) allocated to the program.
Sei Labs, founded in 2021, raised a Series A around 2022-08-31 led by Multicoin Capital and Coinbase Ventures, followed by a $30 million round at an $800 million valuation in April 2023 and a separate $50 million ecosystem investment from Bitget and Foresight Ventures.
Sei operates its own Layer-1 blockchain, originally built on the Cosmos SDK and now transitioning to a fully EVM-compatible, parallelized chain. The chain plans to eventually sunset its original Cosmos-only execution path, and the network uses proof-of-stake consensus secured by a validator set that stakes and receives delegated SEI.
The "Giga" upgrade introduces a new consensus mechanism called Autobahn, alongside the Ares execution engine and Eidos storage engine, aimed at increasing throughput and finality speed. Mainnet v6.6 has already deployed the Ares and Eidos components.
Sei was founded in 2021 by Jeff Feng and co-founder Jayendra Jog. The team has been described as including former employees of Goldman Sachs, Databricks, Robinhood, Google, and Nvidia.
Sei Labs is the company building and developing the Sei protocol. The Sei Foundation is a separate entity that holds 9% of total token supply and coordinates ecosystem and technical roadmap items, such as the "Giga" upgrade.
Sei uses on-chain governance built on the Cosmos SDK governance module, in which SEI holders with delegated stake vote on protocol proposals. Regular proposals require a 3,500 SEI deposit and pass with more than 50% approval excluding abstentions; expedited proposals require a 7,000 SEI deposit and a 66.7% threshold.
A proposal is vetoed if more than 33.4% of votes are "NoWithVeto." Validators are expected to participate actively, including on software upgrades, and voting power can be split across multiple options.
Sei announced its "Giga" upgrade roadmap on 2026-05-29, targeting 200,000 transactions per second and sub-400ms finality through three new components. These are the Ares execution engine, which replaces legacy Go-native execution with an EVMC-backed design; the Eidos storage engine, which separates historical EVM data from Cosmos state; and a new Autobahn consensus mechanism.
Sei has since shipped a mainnet v6.6 upgrade deploying the Ares and Eidos components, described as the chain's largest technical transition since it added EVM compatibility. Sei Labs is rolling out remaining Giga components progressively through 2026, targeting a fully EVM-only chain.
Oak Security conducted multiple audits of Sei's core protocol in May 2023, covering Sei Cosmos, Sei Tendermint, and Sei Chain/CosmWasm bindings. The Sei Foundation runs a public bug bounty program via Immunefi, with rewards reported to range from $1,000 up to $2,000,000 depending on severity.
Concentration data for the Wrapped SEI (WSEI) EVM bridge token shows its top 10 holders control 93% of that wrapped instance's roughly 259 million supply; this reflects the wrapped bridge token specifically, not concentration across native SEI's full 10 billion supply and 49,317 holders.