Sei Blockchain successfully integrated USDC, Circle invested and joined
Sei Blockchain , the underlying blockchain launched in August last year, recently announced that it has received strategic investment from Circle, the issuer of the stablecoin USDC, and has successfully integrated the USDC stablecoin natively into the Sei Blockchain. Stablecoins have been a key element of the blockchain ecosystem, allowing users to spend crypto tokens equivalent to the U.S. dollar on applications such as exchanges and NFT markets. USDC has been working hard to expand its blockchain ecosystem, including adding new options such as NEAR and Optimism last August, and Sei is the latest blockchain to join.
Sei’s founder adopts blockchain to solve intermediary problem
One of the founders of Sei , Jayendra Jog, a former Robinhood engineering director, was inspired to create the Sei blockchain due to management problems.
He told Fortune last April that it was when Robinhood was forced to suspend trading due to the "meme stock" craze in 2021 that he started thinking about creating a decentralized exchange to solve the intermediary problem.
When he realized there was no high-speed transaction blockchain on the market that could meet his needs, he teamed up with Jeff Feng, a former venture capitalist at Coatue, to develop Sei. The project successfully raised $30 million in April last year, with investors including Jump Crypto and Multicoin Capital. In the same month, Sei announced it had received $50 million in additional financing, including from Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitget and venture capital firm Foresight.
Circle Investment Helps Sei Expand Application Ecosystem
Sei, the native token of the Sei blockchain, faced airdrop delays in the early stages of its launch, but after its official launch in August last year, its market value has now reached approximately US$310 million. The investment from Circle Ventures, the venture capital arm of Circle, will help Sei integrate USDC into its growing suite of applications, such as popular decentralized exchange Sushiswap.
Samy Karim, director of Sei Foundation, said: “As the cryptocurrency market matures, stablecoins will become increasingly important to the overall growth of the industry.” This move represents the latest development in Sei and Circle’s expansion efforts. It is also an initiative launched by Circle on a new blockchain to support its token.
Wyatt Lonergan, principal at Circle Ventures, said: "We look forward to working closely with the Sei team to provide USDC integration for developers and users to conduct high-speed and efficient transactions on the network."
