SEI Surges To All-time High As ‘Parallelized’ Layer 1s Rally

Sei, a Layer 1 blockchain optimized for high-speed trading applications, has rallied more than 60% over the past two days to an all-time high of $0.38, giving the project a market capitalization of $850M, according to Coingecko.

While the total value locked (TVL) on Sei is just $5M, the resurgence of Solana this year has prompted crypto investors to take a renewed interest in a new generation of blockchains that leverage parallel execution to offer high transaction speeds and fast finalization times.

Indeed, some of the best-performing Layer 1 tokens over the past month are SOL, SEI and SUI, all of which allow multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously. This approach contrasts with blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which process transactions sequentially.

Sei launched its mainnet beta in August to much fanfare, only to see interest fizzle out after early adopters decried their miniscule airdrops, with many users only receiving enough SEI to compensate for transaction costs in using the network.

However, the project has regained momentum since unveiling its V2 iteration in November, which will bring Ethereum compatibility to Sei.

“This allows Sei to get the best of Solana and Ethereum – a hyper optimized execution layer that benefits from the tooling and mindshare around the EVM,” the project said at the time.