SEI

Sei

Layer 1

A fast parallel-EVM chain built for trading, still shipping upgrades while its token fell two-thirds in a year.

Struggling, ETF hopes v1.1 · as of 2026-10-21 · framework v1.13 Coinsight · all analyses
Bottom line

Sei keeps shipping: the first parts of its Giga upgrade went live in August 2026 and the chain is moving to an EVM-only design. The token has not followed: −67% over a year, −94% from the March 2024 ATH, and TVL has shrunk sharply from its mid-2025 peak. The September 2026 rally rested mostly on hopes for a US staked-SEI ETF, so the near-term case depends on a regulatory decision and on Autobahn actually reaching mainnet.

Scorecard (1–5)
Project
Token performance
Tokenomics
Price
$0.0633
+4.0% 24h · +7% 30d · CoinGecko 21 Oct
Market cap
$425.9M
rank #125 · FDV $632.5M, no max supply
24h volume
$45.6M
10.7% of market cap
From ATH
−94%
ATH $1.14, Mar 2024
2026 YTD
−43%
$0.1110 → $0.0633
Stablecoins
~$330M peak
record 15 May 2026; lower in later snapshots

The last 12 months

$0.05$0.1$0.15$0.2$0.25Oct 25NovDecJan 26FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNov2025-10-27: $0.2071$0.21 peak2026-08-19: $0.0386$0.039 low2026-09-28: $0.0789$0.0792026-10-21: $0.0633$0.063112-month high at $0.212Staked SEI ETF on DTCC list3February sell-off4Stablecoin record ~$330M5−17% day as activity drops6v6.6: Giga upgrade starts7Year low at $0.03868ETF-hope rally to $0.0799US decision on staked SEI ETF10Autobahn mainnet
MarketAdoptionTechUpcoming

Daily closes from CoinGecko, 22 Oct 2025 to 21 Oct 2026. Intraday moves, such as the ~17% drop on 5 Jun 2026, are smaller in daily closes.

Key events
  1. 1
    27 Oct 25 12-month high at $0.21. SEI closes at $0.207, the top of the year; it then falls for ten months.
  2. 2
    10 Nov 25 Staked SEI ETF on DTCC list. Canary's SEIZ appears on the DTCC pre-launch list, which is not SEC approval.
  3. 3
    06 Feb 26 February sell-off. Price drops from about $0.11 in late January to $0.0725 as the wider market slides.
  4. 4
    15 May 26 Stablecoin record ~$330M. Stablecoin supply on Sei peaks with $4.9B of transfer volume in May.
  5. 5
    05 Jun 26 −17% day as activity drops. Fees, DEX volume and futures interest fall sharply in early June.
  6. 6
    31 Jul 26 v6.6: Giga upgrade starts. Ares and Eidos, the first Giga components, go live; Eidos phase one by 12 Aug.
  7. 7
    19 Aug 26 Year low at $0.0386. The low close of the year, −81% from the October 2025 high.
  8. 8
    28 Sep 26 ETF-hope rally to $0.079. About +78% in two weeks on staked-ETF expectations, then a partial fade.
  9. 9
    Soon US decision on staked SEI ETF. Coverage frames approval or delay as the key binary catalyst; no firm date found.
  10. 10
    Soon Autobahn mainnet. The Giga consensus layer is listed as coming soon with no date.

How a swap on a Sei trading app works

Trader
Signs a swap in an EVM wallet

Uses MetaMask or any EVM wallet, paying gas in SEI.

Sei node
Transaction enters a block

Gas price is checked and the fee in SEI is charged.

Parallel EVM
Runs non-conflicting trades at once

Transactions touching different state execute in parallel.

Validators
Agree on the block

SEI stakers finalise it in well under a second; Autobahn aims to cut this further.

DEX contract
Settles the trade

Swaps, for example, SEI or USDC against another token in a pool.

Trader
Receives tokens

Can bridge USDC out via Circle's CCTP if needed.

Where SEI comes in: every transaction pays a gas fee in SEI that goes to validators and stakers, and validators must have SEI staked to secure the chain. Trades in USDC or other tokens do not need SEI beyond that small fee, so the token captures little of the value moved.

Usage and adoption

SEI per month, late 2026 (estimates)
Fees paid (not sourced)
n/a
Unlocks (even spread to 2031)
~55M

~3.27B SEI is still locked (10B total minus 6.73B circulating). Spread evenly to Aug 2031 that is ~55M SEI a month, about $3.5M at $0.063; to 2033 it would be ~40M. No reliable 2026 fee or burn figure could be sourced in this batch; Sei fees are small by design, so paid usage is very likely a small fraction of new supply.

  • weak signal
    Fees / revenue
    Not sourced

    DefiLlama pages did not render; fees are low by design, so fee capture is weak.

  • medium signal
    Stablecoin supply
    ~$330.5M peak

    Record on 15 May 2026, mostly USDC; later undated snapshots show ~$70–120M, so it may have fallen since.

  • weak signal
    DeFi TVL
    ~$40–190M

    2026 snapshots disagree; down from a ~$1.1–1.4B peak in mid-2025.

  • weak signal
    Daily active addresses
    ~1.0–1.4M

    Late 2025 to 2026, news citing on-chain data. Many are gaming and airdrop wallets; weak evidence of paid demand.

Sei shows plenty of activity but little that pays: TVL has fallen sharply since mid-2025 and stablecoins are the only balance of real size. The token case rests on ETF demand and on Giga drawing trading apps back, not on fee capture.

Project

What it is
A Layer 1 launched in August 2023, built for fast trading apps. It started on Cosmos and added a parallelized EVM in 2024; SIP-3 now moves it to an EVM-only chain, with new CosmWasm uploads already stopped.
Team
Sei Labs, co-founded by Jeff Feng (ex-Goldman Sachs, Coatue) and Jayendra Jog (CEO, ex-Robinhood), backed by Multicoin, Jump Crypto and Coinbase Ventures. A separate foundation funds the ecosystem.
Technology
Giga plan: a rebuilt execution layer and a new consensus (Autobahn) targeting ~200,000 TPS. The Ares and Eidos components shipped with the v6.6 upgrade from 31 Jul 2026; Eidos phase one went live 12 Aug.
Traction
Native USDC and CCTP V2 since July 2025. Stablecoin supply hit a record ~$330.5M on 15 May 2026 with $4.9B of May transfer volume, but TVL fell from ~$1.1–1.4B in mid-2025 to well under $200M in 2026 snapshots.
Competitors
Other high-speed EVM chains (Monad, MegaETH, Base, Arbitrum), Solana, and Hyperliquid for on-chain trading.
Key risks
Liquidity has left the chain since 2025; the bull case leans on an ETF that the SEC has not approved; ~33% of supply is still locked; a crowded field of fast EVM chains.
Roadmap
Autobahn consensus on mainnet ("coming soon", no date, 16 Oct 2026); completing SIP-3's EVM-only switch; a US decision on the Canary staked SEI ETF, which news coverage expects around October 2026.

Token performance

1-year return (22 Oct 2025 → 21 Oct 2026, CoinGecko)
SEI
-67%
BTC
-22%
ETH
-35%

SEI fell about three times as much as BTC over 12 months. Over 3 years it is roughly −45% (from ~$0.11–0.13 in mid-October 2023; uncertain) vs BTC ~+179% (from ~$29.7k) and ETH ~+53% (from ~$1.6k); 3-year figures are researched by hand because the free CoinGecko API covers 365 days.

Range 2026
$0.0386 low (19 Aug) to $0.131 high (7 Jan), daily closes; now $0.063 (−43% YTD)
12-month drawdown
−81%, from $0.207 (27 Oct 2025) to $0.0386 (19 Aug 2026)
Liquidity
$45.6M traded in 24h, 10.7% of market cap; rank #125
Relative strength
−67% over a year vs BTC −22% and ETH −35%; +64% off the August low, but 20% below the 28 Sep close of $0.079 after the ETF-hope rally faded
ATH check ATH check passed. The $1.14 high (15 Mar 2024) came about seven months after the August 2023 launch, outside the 90-day window, so it is used as the reference.

Tokenomics

Supply
10B SEI total (CoinGecko lists no hard max); ~6.73B circulating, 67% of total.
Inflation
No classic mint schedule found: staking rewards are paid out of pre-allocated supply. A 2024 estimate put annualised supply growth at ~7.7%; no current figure was found.
Unlocks
~3.27B SEI still locked, mostly the Ecosystem Reserve, vesting to ~2031–2033 (sources differ). Team and investor tranches appear largely vested; about 55M SEI a month if spread evenly to 2031.
Utility
Gas on Sei (EVM), staking to validators and governance votes. Fees are low by design.
Distribution
Original split: Ecosystem Reserve 48%, team 20%, private investors 20%, foundation 9%, Binance Launchpool 3%.
Demand sinks
Staking only, for now. Two US ETF filings (Canary staked SEI, 21Shares) would add the first regulated demand if approved.

Bull case

The SEC approves the Canary staked SEI ETF and Autobahn ships, giving SEI its first regulated demand and a real speed edge; price reclaims the $0.079 September high and heads back toward the $0.13 January level.

Bear case

The ETF is delayed or flops, Giga lands without bringing liquidity back, and ~55M SEI a month of unlocks keeps pressing on a thin market; price loses $0.06 and retests the $0.0386 August low.

Watch before the next re-run

  • SEC decision on the Canary staked SEI ETF (and 21Shares)
  • Autobahn mainnet date and real throughput after Giga
  • Stablecoin supply and DeFi TVL on Sei (DefiLlama)
  • $0.06 support and the $0.079 September high

Where to trade

Krakenlisted

SEI against EUR · USD

24h $303.7k · ±2% depth $395.5k

OKXlisted

SEI against EUR · USDT · USDC · TRY

24h $836.0k · ±2% depth $574.5k

Largest exchanges

Exchange24h vol±2% depth
KuCoinSEI/USDT$11.5M$176.7k
BinanceSEI/USDT$5.86M$549.7k
UpbitSEI/KRW$1.71M$300.5k
CoinbaseSEI/USD$791.3k$347.6k
BybitSEI/USDT$779.5k$184.7k

Deepest DEX pools

Pool24h vol±2% depth
Saphyre V2SEI/USDC · Sei$2.25M$394.2k
Saphyre V2SEI/WBTC · Sei$88.1k$24.5k
Saphyre V2SEI/USDT · Sei$43.0k$6.41k

Pool size (TVL), fee tier and fee APR are not in yet: they need DefiLlama, which this setup cannot reach so far. CL = concentrated liquidity (higher fees, more impermanent-loss risk).

On-chain share of all SEI volume: 5.0%.

As of 21 Oct 2026 · CoinGecko tickers (24h volume, ±2% depth). ±2% depth is the money it takes to move the price 2% either way: the real size of a market. Exchanges ranked by volume among well-known venues; pools by depth. Not investment advice.

Where to follow

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