SEI Inflation Analysis · October 2026 · Supply growing · projected to keep growing

This is the long supply read. For the signal, the price drivers and the questions people ask about Sei Network, see mrnasdog.com/research/sei.

SEI is inflationary: supply grew about 4.97% in the last 90 days and is projected to grow about 4.96% in the next 90. Sei adds 334.71M SEI in a quarter from two sources, monthly team and investor unlocks of 293.33M SEI and a daily mint for stakers of 41.37M SEI, and nothing is bought back or burned. The unlocks run until Aug 2027, and the whole supply is capped at 10B SEI.

The verdict, in one paragraph

Our net reading for SEI is +4.97% over the last 90 days (Jul 19 to Oct 17 2026) and +4.96% for the next 90, measured against 6.73B SEI of circulating supply. The monitor reads only +0.05%, a gap of 4.92 percentage points, so the page carries a ⚠ monitor gap chip. We walked the gap and found its cause: the circulating figure the monitor divides by rose on the 16th of every month until Feb 16 2026 and has held near 6,733.3M SEI since, so it misses every unlock and every daily mint after that date. On-chain, the team vesting contracts kept paying out each month and the chain kept minting, so our number stays. SEI is inflationary by unlock schedule, with no buyer on the other side.

Sell pressure: where new SEI comes from

The largest source is vesting unlocks. Sei’s team share of 2B SEI sits in two on-chain vesting contracts that pay out on the 15th of each month: one releases about 22.22M SEI a month until Aug 15 2027, the other 20M SEI a month until Aug 15 2029. Together they paid 42.22M SEI on each of Aug 17, Sep 16 and Oct 15 2026. The private-sale investors, who also hold 2B SEI, unlock 55.56M SEI on the 15th of each month until Aug 2027 under the published schedule. That makes 293.33M SEI of vesting unlocks in the last 90 days, and the same amount again on Nov 15 2026, Dec 15 2026 and Jan 15 2027.

The second source is protocol inflation. Sei’s mint module releases staking rewards from a fixed plan of 1.5B SEI spread over ten years, ending Aug 14 2033. The plan year that started Aug 15 2026 releases 165M SEI, about 453,297 SEI a day, down from 180M SEI the year before. Counting each daily mint inside the window gives 41.37M SEI of new coins in the last 90 days and 40.80M SEI in the next 90. Reading total supply on-chain at three points in October showed it rising by exactly this mint and nothing else.

The Foundation and unscheduled unlocks row is zero: we found no public evidence of a Foundation or ecosystem-reserve release in the window. The long-term locked or bankruptcy row is also zero, because no bankruptcy estate, court trustee or long lock holds SEI.

Buy pressure: where new SEI goes

Every buy row is zero. Sei has no programmatic buyback, and transaction fees are paid to validators rather than burned, so the protocol fee burn is zero too. Since launch in 2023 only about 1,032 SEI has ever been destroyed. We found no Foundation buy and no project treasury buying SEI in the window.

The new long-term lock row is zero as well. About 4.11B SEI is staked, with a 21-day exit queue, but staked SEI still counts as circulating, so staking more does not take coins out of the float. The planned staked SEI funds would buy coins in the market and stake most of them, which is real demand but not a supply lock in our ledger.

Foundation and overhang

Large amounts of SEI still sit outside the float. The two team vesting contracts hold 902.86M SEI, all of it staked, and they pay out on the schedule above; we read them from the chain at every rebuild. About 555.56M SEI of private-sale coins remain to unlock between Nov 2026 and Aug 2027. The mint module still has 765.99M SEI to create for stakers through Aug 2033. On top of that, about 1.04B SEI sits outside the float in Foundation and ecosystem-reserve wallets with no public release schedule, which we track through official updates. The team payout wallet holds 7.31M SEI, already inside the float. If any of these balances falls between our checks, the outflow enters the Foundation and unscheduled unlocks row at the next refresh.

How SEI compares to other high-speed Layer 1s

SEI belongs to the group of young, fast Layer 1 chains whose supply still grows mainly through insider unlocks. Like Aptos and Sui, Sei releases team and investor coins on a monthly calendar, so its supply growth is set by a schedule rather than by how busy the chain is. The difference is that Sei’s calendar ends earlier for investors: the private-sale and first team tranche finish in Aug 2027, leaving only the second team contract and the shrinking staking mint after that.

Compared with Ethereum or Solana, SEI has no fee burn at all. Those chains destroy part of every fee, so heavy use can offset some of their issuance; on Sei, more activity adds nothing to the buy side. Sei’s staking mint is also different from an open-ended inflation rate: it follows a fixed, falling plan inside a hard cap of 10B SEI, from 180M SEI last year to 165M SEI this year and down to 75M SEI a year from Aug 2031.

The practical result is that SEI’s inflation is front-loaded. Today it is close to 5% a quarter of circulating supply, mostly from vesting; after Aug 2027 the scheduled flow falls to the 20M SEI monthly team tranche plus a mint near 135M SEI a year.

What to watch in the next 90 days

Nov 15 2026, Dec 15 2026 and Jan 15 2027: the three monthly unlocks of about 97.78M SEI each (team contracts plus investors) — any change to the contract payouts would move the reading.

Oct 23 2026: the target date for a staked SEI fund to become effective; a launch would add a market buyer that stakes most of what it buys, though trading may start later.

The final SIP-3 upgrade (date not yet set): Sei is closing its old Cosmos side and moving to EVM only. Coins on old addresses that are never linked could become hard to reach, and we will check whether the team vesting contracts keep paying out after the switch.

Foundation and ecosystem-reserve wallets: about 1.04B SEI with no public schedule — any visible release would enter the sell side.

Summary

SEI is inflationary: Sei adds about 334.71M SEI, or 4.97% of circulating supply, every 90 days, and takes nothing out. Most of it is monthly team and investor vesting of 293.33M SEI a quarter, with a daily staking mint of about 41M SEI on top, and there is no buyback or fee burn to absorb it. The key risk is the steady monthly unlock until Aug 2027, plus about 1.04B SEI held in Foundation and ecosystem wallets with no schedule. The ceiling is the hard cap of 10B SEI, and the pace of new supply should fall sharply after Aug 2027.

MrNasDog Pressure Framework analysis of SEI, Metric 1 — Inflation. Data + explanation only. Not financial advice. Checked Oct 17 2026.

Original: https://mrnasdog.com/research/sei/inflation · Data + explanation only. Not financial advice.