Sei, the layer-1 blockchain that launched in August, introduced a strategic investment from Circle, the issuer of the USD Coin, as effectively as the native integration of the well-liked stablecoin onto its blockchain.
Stablecoins stay an integral a part of the plumbing for blockchains, permitting customers to have a dollar-equivalent crypto token that operates throughout functions like exchanges and NFT marketplaces. USDC has been expanding its roster of blockchains, with a push so as to add new choices together with NEAR and Optimism in August. Sei represents the newest addition.
One in every of Sei’s founders is Jayendra Jog, a former engineering lead at Robinhood. He informed Fortune in April that he bought the thought for the blockchain after Robinhood’s notorious mismanagement of 2021’s “meme inventory” craze, throughout which the platform was compelled to droop buying and selling.
Jog got down to create a decentralized trade that he hoped would resolve the middleman points that plagued Robinhood. After realizing that none of the accessible blockchains on the market, such as Ethereum, may deal with the buying and selling speeds that he wished, Jog started to develop Sei with Jeff Feng, a former enterprise investor at Coatue.
Sei raised $30 million in April at a valuation of $800 million, with buyers together with Bounce Crypto and Multicoin Capital. It announced a further $50 million elevate later that month from Bitget, a Seychelles-based crypto trade centered on derivatives, as effectively as the enterprise agency Foresight.
The layer-1 formally launched in August, though early customers complained about delays in airdrop of the blockchain’s native token, the place early adopters would obtain a set quantity of the cryptocurrency, additionally known as Sei. The market cap for the token is at present round $310 million.
The investment from Circle’s enterprise arm, Circle Ventures, will enable Sei to combine USDC with its rising suite of functions, such as the well-liked decentralized trade Sushiswap.
“As crypto matures, stablecoins will turn into increasingly related to the general development of the business,” Samy Karim, director of the Sei Basis, a nonprofit that helps the blockchain ecosystem, stated in a press release shared with Fortune.
The play represents an growth push by each Sei and Circle. There is a rising checklist of layer-1 blockchains, many with comparable worth propositions, together with Sui, which launched in Might 2023 with an identical promise of velocity. Circle’s USDC, in the meantime, has been rapidly losing market share to its chief rival, Tether. By launching on new blockchains, Circle is aiming to extend the consumer base that can flip to its token.
“We look ahead to working carefully with the Sei group on integrating USDC for builders and customers for high-speed and cost-efficient transactions on the community,” Wyatt Lonergan, a principal at Circle Ventures, stated in a press release shared with Fortune.
USDC launches on Sei as Circle announces strategic investment in the layer-1 blockchain fortune.com 2023-11-16 05:46:42
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