The race to put crypto in everyone’s pocket just got a whole lot more interesting. Sei Labs, the team behind the high-speed layer-1 blockchain, is partnering with Xiaomi, the global electronics giant, to pre-install a crypto wallet and discovery app on all Xiaomi smartphones sold outside mainland China and the United States. This isn’t just another app; it’s a potential on-ramp for millions into the world of digital assets.
The rollout, targeting Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa, aims to sidestep the biggest hurdle in crypto adoption: ease of access. Imagine a world where your crypto wallet isn’t a separate download, but an integral part of your phone’s ecosystem. That’s the vision Sei and Xiaomi are betting on.
This isn’t just about convenience; it’s about accessibility. Users can sign in with existing Google or Xiaomi IDs, and the wallet boasts multiparty computation security. This lowers the barrier to entry for the crypto-curious, potentially converting casual users into active participants in the digital economy.
According to Sei Labs co-founder Jeff Feng, the partnership represents a “watershed moment” for crypto and blockchain adoption, directly addressing the onboarding problem for mainstream users. The move essentially shifts the paradigm from users seeking crypto to crypto finding its users.
The ambition extends beyond simple wallet integration. The companies are planning to enable stablecoin payments across Xiaomi’s retail and online channels. This means you could potentially purchase everything from the latest Xiaomi phone to a sleek new electric vehicle using assets like USDC, which is supported on the Sei network.
Early stablecoin payment launches are slated for Hong Kong and the European Union by 2026, with further expansion planned. This positions Sei as a key player in the evolving landscape of digital payments, potentially disrupting traditional financial systems.
Sei Labs isn’t just relying on Xiaomi’s existing infrastructure. They’re putting their money where their mouth is, creating a $5 million program to fund mobile projects that bring blockchain features to consumer devices. This initiative could spark a wave of innovation, leading to new and unexpected applications of blockchain technology in the mobile space.
This move echoes Solana’s foray into the smartphone market. Solana Mobile launched its Saga device in 2022, with sales skyrocketing after a BONK airdrop briefly made the phone’s token value exceed its retail price. They followed up with the Seeker phone in August 2024 after impressive preorder numbers and have plans for a native SKR token launching in early 2026.
While Solana’s approach involved creating a dedicated device, Sei is taking a more integrated route, leveraging Xiaomi’s existing global footprint. It’s a different strategy, but the underlying goal is the same: to bring crypto to the masses via their mobile devices.
Jay Jog, another co-founder at Sei Labs, put it succinctly: this partnership “moves from a world where crypto must be found to one where it finds users.” This pre-installation strategy offers direct mobile distribution across key crypto markets, eliminating the need for separate app downloads. The rollout is a bold step, and its success could pave the way for other blockchain projects to partner with major mobile manufacturers, accelerating the adoption of decentralized technologies worldwide.
