On December 10, Sei Network, a Layer 1 public blockchain focused on high performance, announced a major cooperation plan with Chinese consumer electronics giant Xiaomi Group.
According to the official press release , starting in 2026, all new Xiaomi, Redmi, and POCO smartphones sold outside of mainland China and the United States will come pre-installed with a "next-generation crypto wallet and application discovery app" with underlying technology provided by Sei. After powering on, users can simply log in with their existing Google or Xiaomi accounts to immediately have a fully functional on-chain wallet without any additional downloads or cumbersome registration, significantly lowering the barrier for ordinary consumers to enter the crypto world.
The core features of pre-installed apps
According to the official description, the core features of this pre-installed app include:
- The institutional-grade wallet security mechanism employs MPC (Multi-Party Computation) technology, eliminating the need to remember seed phrases;
- It features built-in access to selected popular DApps, allowing users to access DeFi, GameFi, social networking, and NFT applications directly from their phone's home screen.
- It supports peer-to-peer instant transfers, as well as C2B (consumer-to-merchant) payment functionality that can be directly used for consumption in the future;
- All transactions are completed natively on the Sei chain, enjoying a final confirmation time of less than 400 milliseconds and extremely low transaction fees.
A further highlight lies in the realm of physical payments. Both parties have initiated a stablecoin payment system development plan, with initial launch expected in Hong Kong and the EU markets as early as Q2 2026, followed by gradual expansion to other compliant regions. Looking ahead, consumers will be able to directly use USDC and other stablecoins native to the Sei blockchain to purchase smartphones, tablets, electric vehicles, and smart home appliances when shopping at over 20,000 Xiaomi stores worldwide or on the official website.
The initial pre-installation will prioritize markets where Xiaomi has a high market share and strong crypto acceptance, including Europe (Greece, 36.9% market share), India (24.2%), Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Sei added that Xiaomi shipped 168 million smartphones globally in 2024, achieving a 13% market share and firmly holding a place among the top three globally. This means Sei has gained direct access to hundreds of millions of mainstream users, a scale far exceeding the active user base of any current crypto wallet or exchange.
Sei launches $5 million "Global Action Innovation Plan"
In addition, to encourage more developers to create applications for mobile scenarios, Sei simultaneously launched a $5 million "Global Mobile Innovation Program" specifically to fund the development of blockchain applications that run natively on Xiaomi phones. Sei co-founder Jeff Feng stated in the announcement, "This collaboration with Xiaomi is not just about solving the problem of 'how to get users on board,' but about directly bringing Web3 into the devices and life scenarios that users already use every day." Another co-founder, Jay Jog, emphasized, "We are moving from a world where 'you have to go looking for crypto' to an era where 'crypto finds you.'"
