Sei Network's SEI Token Gains Over 75% in a Week Amid EVM-Compliant Blockchain Popularity

According to CoinDesk, the Sei Network's SEI token has experienced over 75% gains in the past week, driven by the increasing popularity of EVM-compliant blockchains and the parallelization process. Launched in August 2023, the Sei Network is a trading-focused blockchain backed by prominent investors such as Jump Crypto and Multicoin Capital. It is designed for speed, low fees, and other features that support trading applications. On-chain metrics for the Sei Network are heating up, with the growth of ecosystem plays like SEIYAN and SEILOR tokens and an increase in SEI futures open interest indicating mounting interest in the network. EVM, short for Ethereum Virtual Machine, is a virtual computer where all smart contracts and Ethereum applications are deployed. An EVM-compliant blockchain is another network that can run such applications. Parallelization is a relatively new blockchain process that settles multiple transactions at the same time on the network. The recent token trading frenzy in blockchains such as Solana and Avalanche is driving speculators to bet on blockchains other than Ethereum, the usual favorite, and networks such as Sei are benefiting. Data shows that on-chain metrics are rapidly heating up for Sei Network, favoring bullish bets on ecosystem plays in the short term. Meme coin SEIYAN has gained 400% in the past week, serving as a proxy for the growth of the broader Sei ecosystem. SEIYAN tokens are currently the most-valued Sei-based token. As of Tuesday, there’s just over $5.5 million locked on Sei-based decentralized applications (dapps), with trading service Astroport holding more than 95% of that, data shows. Meanwhile, liquid staking protocol Kryptonite’s SEILOR tokens have gained 80% in the past 24 hours as users warm up to more fundamental plays. SEI futures open interest, or the number of unsettled contracts, increased to $228 million on Tuesday from $69 million at the start of December, suggesting a large jump in trading interest for the tokens. Hype for Sei could be driven by a forthcoming update the developers say will make the network the fastest blockchain in the market while adding other features that let project developers deploy audited smart contracts from EVM-compatible networks and introduce parallelization. The major upgrade is expected to be released in a public testnet in Q1 2024 and deployed to mainnet sometime in H1 2024, according to a recent developer update.