Pointer Contracts

Looking up and interacting with pointer contracts that bridge CosmWasm and EVM tokens on Sei

Pointer contracts

Sei runs two token execution environments side by side: EVM and CosmWasm. Pointer contracts are automatically deployed EVM contracts that proxy a CosmWasm token, and vice versa.

This guide covers pointers only for CosmWasm contracts that are already deployed. It does not document native-denom pointer workflows. IBC is disabled in both directions. Tokenfactory is not a supported development path. See IBC is disabled and Tokenfactory is not supported.

Token	Pointer type	EVM interface
CW20 (CosmWasm fungible token)	ERC-20 pointer	Standard ERC-20
CW721 (CosmWasm NFT)	ERC-721 pointer	Standard ERC-721
CW1155 (CosmWasm multi-token)	ERC-1155 pointer	Standard ERC-1155

After you have the pointer address, you interact with it through the standard ERC-20, ERC-721, or ERC-1155 interface.

For background on how pointer contracts work, see the Pointers overview.

Looking up a pointer address

The pointerview precompile resolves pointer addresses for existing CosmWasm contracts. @sei-js/precompiles exports its ABI and address.

viem

import { createPublicClient, http } from 'viem';
import { sei } from 'viem/chains';
import {
  POINTERVIEW_PRECOMPILE_ABI,
  POINTERVIEW_PRECOMPILE_ADDRESS,
} from '@sei-js/precompiles';

const client = createPublicClient({ chain: sei, transport: http() });

// CW20 → ERC-20 pointer
const erc20Pointer = await client.readContract({
  address: POINTERVIEW_PRECOMPILE_ADDRESS,
  abi: POINTERVIEW_PRECOMPILE_ABI,
  functionName: 'getCW20Pointer',
  args: ['sei1...cw20ContractAddress'],
});

// CW721 → ERC-721 pointer
const erc721Pointer = await client.readContract({
  address: POINTERVIEW_PRECOMPILE_ADDRESS,
  abi: POINTERVIEW_PRECOMPILE_ABI,
  functionName: 'getCW721Pointer',
  args: ['sei1...cw721ContractAddress'],
});

// CW1155 → ERC-1155 pointer
const erc1155Pointer = await client.readContract({
  address: POINTERVIEW_PRECOMPILE_ADDRESS,
  abi: POINTERVIEW_PRECOMPILE_ABI,
  functionName: 'getCW1155Pointer',
  args: ['sei1...cw1155ContractAddress'],
});

The return value includes the pointer address and an exists boolean. Check exists before you interact with the pointer. Not all CosmWasm tokens have a deployed pointer.

Interacting with a CW20 pointer as ERC-20

After you have the pointer address, use it as a standard ERC-20 contract.

viem

import { parseAbi } from 'viem';

const ERC20_ABI = parseAbi([
  'function balanceOf(address owner) view returns (uint256)',
  'function transfer(address to, uint256 amount) returns (bool)',
]);

const balance = await client.readContract({
  address: erc20Pointer.addr,
  abi: ERC20_ABI,
  functionName: 'balanceOf',
  args: ['0xYourAddress'],
});

Interacting with a CW721 pointer as ERC-721

viem

import { parseAbi } from 'viem';

const ERC721_ABI = parseAbi([
  'function ownerOf(uint256 tokenId) view returns (address)',
  'function tokenURI(uint256 tokenId) view returns (string)',
]);

const owner = await client.readContract({
  address: erc721Pointer.addr,
  abi: ERC721_ABI,
  functionName: 'ownerOf',
  args: [1n],
});

For full ERC-20 and ERC-721 examples, including transfers, approvals, and events, see the ERC-20 and ERC-721 pages.