Sei Pointer Contracts: Bridging EVM and Cosmos Environments

Understand how Sei’s pointer contract system enables seamless asset movement between EVM and Cosmos environments, with implementation patterns for various token types.

Pointer contracts are now primarily a legacy / migration tool. Per Proposal 115, no new CosmWasm contracts can be uploaded or instantiated on Sei, so the CW20 / CW721 / CW1155 → ERC20 / ERC721 / ERC1155 pointer flow only applies to already-deployed CosmWasm contracts. Native (Bank Module) pointers continue to work normally. For new tokens or NFTs, deploy ERC20 / ERC721 / ERC1155 contracts directly on the EVM.

Pointer Contracts enable tokens to be used interoperably in both EVM and Cosmos environments. Intended to be efficient and quick to deploy, a pointer simply serves as an interpreter between the two “languages” used in either execution environment.

Why Pointer Contracts

A world without pointer contracts

Wallets and clients for feature-rich protocols typically support only a single execution environment. EVM wallets handle ERC-20 coins and ERC-721 NFTs but cannot interact with Cosmos-SDK based assets due to different token standards and interaction methods. The same problem exists for clients built for other protocols (like Cosmos and its various SDK modules) which cannot directly interact with Ethereum-based contracts or ERC tokens.

Pointer Contracts solve this by enabling interoperability of either protocol, regardless of the client interface.

With pointer contracts, all tokens can be accessed by wallets of either environment

How Pointer Contracts Work

Pointer contracts enable seamless interoperability

Each smart contract is limited to one associated pointer contract, which must be registered on chain when deploying. This prevents conflicts and provides a reference point for verifying the authenticity of the paired contract itself.