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Key Notes
- The wallet will enable peer-to-peer stablecoin transfers and merchant payments through Mi Pay across 20,000 retail locations.
- Deployment begins in Hong Kong and the EU during Q2 2026, covering Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa initially.
- Industry experts call this the largest hardware distribution deal in cryptocurrency history, surpassing previous Samsung and Aptos initiatives.
Sei announced a partnership with Xiaomi on December 10 that will put a pre-installed crypto wallet and discovery app on every new Xiaomi smartphone sold outside mainland China and the United States. The app, built on Sei infrastructure, will use Google or Xiaomi IDs for sign-up and include multi-party computation security. It will let users send stablecoins peer-to-peer and, later, pay merchants.
According to the official blog post, the first markets will focus on Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa—regions where Xiaomi already has strong footing. The companies plan to roll out stablecoin payments through Mi Pay and at more than 20,000 Xiaomi retail stores, starting in Hong Kong and the European Union around Q2 2026.
“This collaboration with Xiaomi represents a watershed moment for blockchain adoption,” Sei Labs co-founder Jeff Feng said in the announcement. Fellow co-founder Jay Jog added that the goal is to make crypto something that “finds you” instead of the other way around.
A new era of mobile finance is coming to Xiaomi's global user base.
A next-gen finance app powered by Sei and designed for stablecoin payments, will be integrated into the Xiaomi mobile ecosystem, coming pre-installed on new devices.
Money made instant — built into your phone. pic.twitter.com/75ly01AHB3
— Sei (@SeiNetwork) December 10, 2025
Xiaomi shipped 168 million phones in 2024 and holds roughly 13 percent of the global smartphone market, putting the Sei app in front of tens of millions of new users each year without requiring a single download.
The deal also includes a $5 million Global Mobile Innovation Program to support developers building consumer-facing blockchain tools.
Sei and Xiaomi: ‘The Largest Hardware Distribution in Crypto History’
Strategic advisor and Sei Ambassador Tanaka called the integration “the largest hardware distribution in crypto history” in a post following Sei Network’s announcement, noting that no previous project has reached OS-level placement at this scale.
🚨 BIG NEWS: @SeiNetwork is partnering with Xiaomi to bring stablecoin payments and onchain transactions into the entire Xiaomi ecosystem.
I’ve been following every major move from Sei, and this integration is one of the strongest signals that mass adoption is getting closer.… https://t.co/TyH8nod8wk pic.twitter.com/oS1h6zg0ml
— Tanaka (@Tanaka_L2) December 10, 2025
Other cryptocurrency projects have similar endeavors, but, as Tanaka said, hardly at that scale and seamless onboarding.
Klaytn worked with Samsung in 2019 on the Klaytn Phone, a variant of the Galaxy Note 10 that came with a preinstalled wallet and DApp store. However, this was a special edition sold only in South Korea, with no widespread rollout across Samsung’s global devices.
Aptos partnered with Jambo in 2024 for the JamboPhone, a $99 Android device preloaded with the Petra wallet and Web3 apps. It has aimed at emerging markets like Africa and Southeast Asia, available in over 40 countries, but Jambo isn’t a top-tier manufacturer like Xiaomi—it is more of a targeted crypto-focused product without massive annual shipment volumes.
Other cases, like SolanaSaga and Seeker phones or HTC’s Exodus, are custom blockchain devices with limited production and sales, not integrations into existing mass-market phones, despite attracting significant attention as when Solana’s Seeker phones started being distributed worldwide.
On a similar note, NEAR has a still ongoing use case with KAI-Ching, a shopping and cashback app developed by Cosmose AI and built on the NEAR Protocol. The KaiKai lock screen app—which integrates Kai-Ching for rewards and payments—is preinstalled by default on mobile devices from several Asian smartphone manufacturers, including OPPO and realme, but it also does not reach the same potential scale as Sei’s just-announced partnership with Xiaomi.
Disclaimer: Coinspeaker is committed to providing unbiased and transparent reporting. This article aims to deliver accurate and timely information but should not be taken as financial or investment advice. Since market conditions can change rapidly, we encourage you to verify information on your own and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.
Vini Barbosa has covered the crypto industry professionally since 2020, summing up to over 10,000 hours of research, writing, and editing related content for media outlets and key industry players. Vini is an active commentator and a heavy user of the technology, truly believing in its revolutionary potential. Topics of interest include blockchain, open-source software, decentralized finance, and real-world utility.
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