Niche verticals and network effects: Polkadot and Sei ecosystem playbooks
Post270 words
Agrees that public ledgers gain value by picking verticals and building network effects. Polkadot is gaining traction in gaming and data/DePIN, while Sei's gaming push spilled into DeFi with higher TVL and usage after GIGA Sei, a SEI ETF filing and native USDC.
Key claims
Sei activity spilled from gaming into DeFi after GIGA Sei, ETF filing and native USDC
Hydration's DOT incentive program lifted TVL, but durability is unproven
Recently came across a post by @alice_und_bob in which he shared his toughts on treasury spending, and I couldn't agree more with this part:
"The value of public ledgers comes from network effects. That means picking verticals/niches and gaining a foothold."
As he also mentions, @Polkadot has been seing some great early success here with verticals like:
- Gaming (check @EnterTheMythos or @Unique_NFTchain)
- Data / DePIN (check @peaq, @origin_trail or @Acurast)
If continuously successful, the activity built through the network effects in those niches is likely to spill over into other areas and globally accelerate network growth.
Think @SeiNetwork has also been quite successful with a similar approach (even tho different tech), where especially the gaming sector excelled in growth in late 2024, also pushed by corresponding support/initiatives.
In recent months, and along a streak of driver announcements (GIGA Sei, $SEI ETF filing, native $USDC support, etc.), activity started to spill over into other areas (specifically DeFi), with TVL and usage metrics up significantly across the board in the past months.
Polkadot has a lot of exciting stuff cooking, and development in sectors like gaming and Data/DePIN looks promising. Will be interesting to see if strong network effects can successfully be built up and fostered in these sectors, and if it can successfully spark growth in other sectors too.
With @hydration_net and the $DOT liquidity incentive program, we've already started to see some promising increase in TVL and activity metrics there, but it remains to be seen if that momentum actually sticks in the mid-long term.
Some interesting insights for any project building an ecosystem in a crowded market.
What came next · since 14 Jul 2025
Show how the 2 covered assets moved
This market take reads the setup without making a call on the token, so price moves since publication are shown as market context.
Since then
Zero has written 3 more pieces on Polkadot and Sei and $DOT and $SEI since this one.
Daily closes in USD from DefiLlama and Yahoo Finance. Only a bullish or bearish call in a thesis or market take is tracked; explainers, lists, maps and mentions are neutral context. Not financial advice.