In the ongoing endeavor to bring blockchain technology and its laudable promise to the masses, Ethereum and the vast Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystem that has grown around it are critical players. Introduced in 2015, the EVM has become, to a large extent, the cornerstone of the blockchain industry. It provides a standardized, Turing-complete environment for developers to build and deploy smart contracts using Solidity and other EVM-compatible languages. EVM’s significance lies in its widespread adoption, robust tooling, and the second-to-none developer community building with it. This undeniably dominant position has been established through EVM’s extensive mindshare, impressive infrastructure, and broad interoperability, making it the de facto standard for smart contract platforms in 2025.
However, the EVM and the ecosystem evolving around it face a critical scalability challenge: the Ethereum Virtual Machine was originally engineered with a focus on enabling smart contracts rather than optimizing for high-speed performance. Measured in “gigagas” - a measurement of computational throughput representing billions of gas units per second - EVM throughput remains, to date, severely limited.
On Ethereum’s mainnet, the network typically processes only about 15-30 million gas per second (or 0.015-0.030 gigagas per second) under normal conditions, constrained by its 12-15 second block time and gas limits. In simpler terms, this translates to Ethereum handling only about 10 to 30 transactions per second (TPS) on average, though it can peak at around 100 TPS during high network activity or with the help of Layer 2 scaling solutions. This low throughput - well below the current capacity of existing web2 systems that can process tens or hundreds of thousands of transactions per second - hinders the developer experience, forcing builders to navigate high gas fees, slow finality, and network congestion. These limitations impede mainstream adoption, particularly for high-demand applications like institutional-grade “real world” assets, high-frequency trading, AI agents, and gaming.
Enter: Sei Giga, a transformative initiative by Sei Labs to significantly boost EVM performance. Sei Giga targets an impressive throughput of 5 gigagas per second - a 50-fold enhancement over current EVM mainnet capabilities while maintaining full compatibility with Ethereum’s essential features. This ambitious project aims to enable groundbreaking use cases for the next generation of blockchain users and the builders/developers working to onboard them.
Let’s take a look at how…
Sei: Scaling EVM for the Future
Sei is a high-performance blockchain designed to enhance the Ethereum Virtual Machine for broader adoption, with a focus on cryptocurrency trading and decentralized applications. Launched with the goal of maximizing speed and scalability, Sei distinguishes itself by targeting use cases such as decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and trading platforms, providing rapid transaction finality and minimal latency. The project started with Sei v1, a layer-1 blockchain optimized for trading, advancing significantly with Sei v2, launched in July 2024 as the first parallelized EVM. Its v2 upgrade introduced concurrent processing, efficient consensus mechanisms, and enhanced storage, ensuring full compatibility with Ethereum’s ecosystem while outperforming conventional EVM networks.
Since the mainnet beta of Sei v2, the platform has achieved impressive milestones, surpassing $250 million in Total Value Locked (TVL), reaching 400,000 daily active addresses, integrating 150 projects, and serving 6.5 million total users. These successes underscore Sei’s rising stature as a developer-friendly EVM ecosystem, leveraging Ethereum’s tools, community support, and reputation while working to address its scalability challenges. Through open-source efforts like the Sei Research Initiative, Sei has established itself as a vital contributor to advancing EVM performance, setting the stage for Sei Giga’s game-changing potential.
What Is Sei Giga?
Sei Giga is an innovative effort by Sei Labs to elevate the Ethereum Virtual Machine to reach a throughput of 5 gigagas per second (5 billion gas per second) and position Sei as a leading performer in the EVM space. Introduced as part of Sei’s broader vision to align blockchain performance with that of web2 networks, Sei Giga tackles the EVM’s scalability constraints, aiming for a 50x performance boost over existing EVM platforms. This bold objective, validated through an internal devnet test involving 40 validator nodes across four regions, seeks to achieve web2-scale capabilities, such as processing 100,000 complex transactions per second - comparable to major web2 platforms - while retaining Ethereum’s core features and compatibility.
Building on Sei v2’s parallelized EVM, rapid consensus, and optimized storage, Sei Giga introduces a comprehensive upgrade to its consensus, execution, and storage systems. It employs the Autobahn consensus protocol and a newly engineered EVM client to deliver exceptional throughput, minimal latency (~700ms finality), and network stability, positioning Sei to support the next generation of users and enable large-scale institutional applications like Real World Assets (RWAs) and AI-driven systems.
What It Unlocks: Sei Giga Use Cases
Sei Giga’s impressive throughput and robust scalability are designed to empower developers and builders to create new EVM applications (and upgrade existing ones) with exceptional speed, cost-effectiveness, and reliability, potentially driving widespread adoption across multiple, diverse use cases. Here are a few important ones to watch as Sei Giga rolls out in earnest…
Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Sei Giga is uniquely positioned to optimize decentralized finance (DeFi) by addressing the scalability and speed limitations of traditional blockchains. Its high-performance infrastructure offers unmatched transaction processing, low latency, and robust stability, making it an ideal platform for DeFi applications that require rapid, cost-effective, and secure operations. This capability opens the door to transformative use cases, enabling DeFi to compete with centralized financial systems at web2-scale levels.
High-Frequency Trading (HFT)
High-frequency trading in DeFi involves executing large volumes of trades in milliseconds, demanding ultra-low latency and high throughput to capitalize on market opportunities. Sei Giga enhances HFT by providing a lightning-fast, stable environment that minimizes delays and ensures consistent performance, even under heavy network loads, allowing traders to execute strategies with precision and efficiency comparable to modern centralized exchanges.
Lending and Derivatives
DeFi lending and derivatives platforms facilitate borrowing, lending, and complex financial instruments like options and futures, requiring fast, secure, and scalable transactions to handle high volumes and ensure trustless interactions. Sei Giga enhances these applications by offering a highly responsive, secure infrastructure that supports real-time settlements and reduces operational costs, enabling seamless access to decentralized financial products for users worldwide.
Real World Assets (RWAs)
Real World Assets involve tokenizing physical assets like real estate, art, or commodities on the blockchain, creating liquid, tradable digital representations that require robust scalability and security for institutional adoption. As explained by Jack Lipstone, Head of DeFi Business Development at Sei Foundation, Sei Giga has the potential to support a $16T market for tokenized Real World Assets (RWAs), such as real estate, art, or commodities. Sei Giga optimizes RWA platforms by delivering rapid settlement times, strong security, and the ability to manage massive transaction volumes, fostering liquidity and trust for institutional investors. Its high-performance infrastructure ensures efficient, secure transactions, driving widespread adoption of assets like USDT or tokenized properties.
AI Agents:
Sei Giga’s infrastructure supports fully autonomous AI agents operating at scale, addressing the limitations of centralized web2 systems - lack of trust, unverifiable computation, and interoperability challenges. Its high-performance, decentralized infrastructure offers lightning-fast processing, robust security, and seamless cross-ecosystem compatibility, enabling AI agents to operate at scale with web2-like efficiency.
AI-powered personal assistants, capable of performing everyday tasks autonomously, such as booking travel, managing budgets, or scheduling appointments, require rapid, secure, and trustless interactions. Sei Giga enhances these agents by providing a responsive, decentralized platform that ensures real-time decision-making, protects user privacy, and enables seamless, cost-effective transactions, making personalized AI assistance more accessible and reliable for users worldwide.
Gaming
Sei Giga transforms blockchain gaming by overcoming traditional limitations like slow transactions and high fees, unlocking immersive, scalable experiences for players worldwide. Its high-performance, decentralized infrastructure delivers rapid, secure transaction processing, enabling real-time interactions and efficient in-game economies on the blockchain. This capability opens the door to transformative gaming use cases, allowing developers to create web2-like experiences with blockchain’s decentralized benefits.
Play-to-Earn (P2E) Games
Play-to-Earn (P2E) games reward players with cryptocurrency or NFTs for in-game activities, requiring fast, scalable, and secure transactions to support millions of simultaneous players and instant reward distributions. Sei Giga enhances P2E games by providing a stable, low-latency platform that ensures real-time in-game purchases and rewards, rivaling centralized gaming networks.
NFT-Based In-Game Items
NFT-based in-game items, such as skins, weapons, or collectibles, require rapid, secure, and scalable transactions for creation, trading, and transferability, ensuring fluid player ownership and market dynamics. Sei Giga optimizes these items by offering an efficient, decentralized platform that supports instant NFT transactions, enhancing player engagement and market liquidity.
Consumer Applications
Sei Giga empowers consumer applications by delivering fast, secure, and scalable blockchain solutions for everyday use, transforming how users interact with digital wallets, social platforms, and loyalty programs. Its high-performance, decentralized infrastructure ensures rapid, reliable transactions, enabling seamless, web2-like experiences with blockchain’s decentralized benefits. This capability unlocks innovative consumer applications, enhancing user engagement and trust worldwide.
Digital Wallets
Digital wallets enable users to store, manage, and transact cryptocurrencies or tokenized assets securely, requiring low-latency, scalable, and trustless transactions for everyday use. Sei Giga enhances digital wallets by providing a responsive, decentralized platform that supports instant, cost-effective transactions, improving accessibility and security for consumers managing their digital assets.
Social Media Platforms
Decentralized social media platforms allow users to share content, engage with communities, and monetize interactions securely, requiring scalable, low-latency transactions for rewards, tips, or NFT-based profiles. Sei Giga optimizes these platforms by offering a stable, decentralized infrastructure that supports real-time interactions and efficient token transfers, fostering trust and engagement for users worldwide.
Loyalty Programs
Blockchain-based loyalty programs reward users with tokens for purchases, referrals, or engagement, requiring fast, secure, and scalable transactions to ensure seamless redemption and tracking. Sei Giga enhances these programs by providing a reliable, decentralized platform that supports instant, transparent reward distributions, improving customer retention and trust for businesses and consumers.
Final Thoughts
Sei Giga’s 5 gigagas per second throughput and technical innovations position Sei at the forefront of the ongoing effort to scale the EVM for web2-level performance, addressing the EVM’s scalability crisis and unlocking many potentially transformative use cases. By preserving Ethereum’s compatibility while delivering unprecedented speed, latency, and resilience, Sei Giga empowers developers, institutions, and consumers, paving the way for the next wave of users across DeFi, RWAs, AI agents, gaming, supply chains, and beyond. With Sei Giga’s rollout already in progress—this intriguing development will be well worth keeping an eye on as 2025 takes shape.
DISCLAIMER: This is not financial advice. Staking and cryptocurrency investment involve a certain degree of risk, and there is always the possibility of loss, including the loss of all staked digital assets. Additionally, delegators are at risk of slashing in case of security or liveness faults on some PoS protocols. We advise you to DYOR before choosing a validator.
