No matter how good the wallet is, it's better to embed it directly into the phone's factory system.

The crypto financial app developed by Sei @SeiNetwork will be pre-installed on all new Xiaomi phones, with plans to support stablecoin payments and offline transactions at over 20,000 retail stores.

According to official disclosures, the overall framework of this cooperation can be roughly divided into three parts:

▰ Pre-installation: A crypto financial app developed by Sei, pre-installed on all new Xiaomi phones (initially starting in markets outside mainland China and the US)

▰ Payments: Supporting stablecoin payments based on Sei within Xiaomi's mobile ecosystem and at over 20,000 offline retail stores

▰ Access: Deep integration of the app into Xiaomi's App Store and system-level payment, which can be understood as MiPay supporting on-chain stablecoins.

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This pre-installed app is not just a simple tool wallet, but a decentralized finance-oriented application:

➤ Account System:
Create a wallet using Google or Xiaomi ID, with MPC-based key management at the core, reducing the barrier of mnemonic phrases

➤ Asset Layer:
Supports mainstream stablecoins, such as USDC, as daily settlement currencies

➤ Functionality Layer:
P2P transactions with second-level transfers between users
C2B payments for shopping at Xiaomi stores and online
Discovery of DApps through a gateway aggregating on-chain applications

➤ Entry Layer:
Embedded into Xiaomi's App Store and system-level payment gateway, and promoted via Xiaomi's global advertising network

For Sei, this is an opportunity to upgrade from a high-performance L1 to a foundational payment infrastructure inside mobile devices.

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This collaboration is arguably the largest hardware distribution in crypto history, roughly estimated as:

▰ Xiaomi is the third-largest smartphone manufacturer globally, with about 13% market share
▰ 2024 smartphone shipments are estimated at approximately 168 million units, with a total ecosystem user base of around 680 million

Comparing to typical distribution scales in the crypto space:
▰ Coinbase: about 100 million registered users
▰ Phantom: tens of millions of wallet users
▰ Solana Saga: targeting niche, tech-savvy models with limited units
▰ Base App: climbing through the App Store

From a distribution perspective, the Sei and Xiaomi partnership can be considered the:
Largest on-chain consumer-grade hardware distribution experiment to date.

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However, distribution does not equal activation. Behind this opportunity are significant execution challenges:

➤ How to ensure compliance?
Stablecoin payments must pass regulatory scrutiny in various countries.

➤ Presence of the pre-installed app
Whether users will open it and use it long-term depends on user experience and operation.

➤ Can the Sei ecosystem absorb this wave of traffic?
The Sei ecosystem needs to keep pace; otherwise, a large entry point is just an unused icon.

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Overall, this move by Sei and Xiaomi holds considerable potential in both narrative and scale.

But what truly determines the value of this initiative is not today’s news but whether, in the coming years, Xiaomi users will turn this pre-installed crypto gateway into a habitual click.