According to a blog post published on Jan. 4, Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange MEXC will allocate $20 million to support developments on Sei Network. A layer 1 blockchain designed for trading, Sei Network’s stated features include native order matching, frontrunning protection, smart block propagation and 600-millisecond on-chain trade settlement. Leo Zhao, investment manager of MEXC Ventures, commented: 

"AMM [Automated Market Makers] was the dominant market-making method in crypto for the past 2 years. The lack of a more efficient market-making strategy is in large part because of technology restrictions like low speed and smart-contract restrictions. We believe Sei’s customized Layer 1 solution will be a game changer in the industry."

Last August, Sei Network raised $5 million in a funding round from investors such as Multicoin Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Delphi Digital, Hudson River Trading, GSR, Hypersphere, Flow Traders and others. By then, over 20 decentralized applications had been built in the ecosystem. Sei claims its blockchain can process approximately 22,000 orders per second and has 250,000 testnet users. Similarly, to meet exchange trading specifications, other decentralized solutions such as dYdX chose to migrate their blockchain from Ethereum to Cosmos. Developers said that Ethereum simply couldn't handle its orderbook of around 1,000 orders per second:

“Decentralized exchanges are also the most underserved application in crypto. They demand a unique level of requirements for reliability, scalability, and speed that no other apps need. If a large exchange goes down for a few moments, it’s catastrophic, but the same downtime is far more tolerable for most other application types.”

MEXC Ventures currently possesses approximately $100 million in assets under management spread across 300 portfolio companies. Its parent company, MEXC exchange, processed around $600 million in total trading volume in the past 24 hours. The firm is known for its perpetual future products, which launched in the fourth quarter of 2018.