Trading Volumes for Newly Launched SEI Token Topped $1B in One Day

The newly launched layer-1 Sei Network went live yesterday with its Mainnet beta phase, ushering in its brand new SEI token.

Leading exchanges like Binance, Bybit, Huobi, and Kraken listed the token on August 15.

The SEI trading volume on day one reached $1.14 billion, according to CoinGecko data, with South Korean-based Upbit and Binance leading the pack.

On Binance, the token was one of the top traded tokens with $240 million traded since yesterday, only behind the majors in Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, and XRP.

Notably, Upbit listed SEI around 4.5 hours later than Binance and had a significant influence on the token’s price.

South Korean-based Upbit made up more than half of its trading volume at $560 million.

The token traded at a premium on Upbit, peaking at $0.64, compared to $0.45 on other exchanges. Additionally, Coinbase and Bitfinex exchanges also announced support for SEI.

Sei Network is a layer-1 blockchain built on Cosmos SDK specialized for high-frequency trading applications which offer faster transaction speed than the likes of Solana.

The project raised $30 million from Jump Crypto, Multicoin Capital, and Flow Traders in a strategic funding round in April, valuing the blockchain at $800 million.

SEI airdrop delayed

According to CoinGecko, the team initially deployed 18% of the total supply of 10 billion tokens. Not all of these tokens are currently being traded on the market, however.

Binance said that the circulating supply includes “launch pool rewards, the private sale tokens, and the ecosystem and foundation tokens.”

Sei Labs has not released the details of the emission. The team hasn’t responded to Decrypt’s questions immediately.

The SEI tokenomics outlined by Sei Labs allocated a majority of tokens to ecosystem reserves (48%), the SEI Foundation (9%), and airdrop incentives (3%). The remaining 40% went toward the team and contributors.

From the circulating supply, the airdrop claims for SEI tokens haven’t begun and the team hasn’t announced who is eligible for the airdrop.

The SEI Labs team member announced in their Discord that the “airdrop is ready” but they’re waiting for “ecosystem partners to complete their work” before enabling claims.

The team said that over 30 applications are “slated to launch” on the network.

According to a statement yesterday, 7.5 million unique wallets sent over 400 million testnet transactions.