Phantom Wallet launches Perptual Futures Trading feature, can it break through in a fiercely competitive market?

The Solana ecosystem wallet Phantom recently announced the launch of Futures Trading functionality, which is supported by the API of a certain platform. This move breaks Phantom's long-standing silence and provides users with new trading options.

Looking back at the development of Phantom, this Wallet rapidly emerged during the booming period of the Solana ecosystem. Over the past year, Phantom has completed three strategic acquisitions involving token and NFT data platforms, security companies, and embedded Wallet operators. Earlier this year, Phantom also successfully raised $150 million in Series C funding, co-led by well-known investment institutions. According to statistics from a data platform, the trading volume of the Phantom Wallet peaked in January this year, with monthly revenue reaching as high as $110 million.

However, due to the overall market environment and the strong promotion of their own wallet products by other trading platforms, Phantom is facing declining revenue and market growth pressure. In this context, whether Phantom can stand out in the fiercely competitive wallet market has become a focal point of industry attention.

Phantom's Perptual Futures Trading feature

Phantom's newly launched Perptual Futures trading feature is initially available to users in the European Union. This feature accesses the market through an API integration with a certain platform without permission, allowing eligible users to perform Perptual Futures trading directly within the Phantom Wallet while maintaining non-custodial control over their positions.

Phantom provides users with a mobile-oriented trading experience, allowing them to feel that this is a natural extension of the Phantom core interface. This feature supports up to 40x leverage, stop loss, take profit, and real-time alerts.

However, this new feature has also raised some users' concerns about fee transparency. Some users are worried that Phantom may profit by charging higher fees. After clarification, users learned that the exchange between USDC and SOL actually occurs on a certain platform, rather than on Phantom.

Phantom's Expansion Strategy

Phantom started in 2021 as a Web3 Wallet focused on the Solana ecosystem and gradually expanded its supported blockchain networks. In April 2023, Phantom began supporting the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. In December of the same year, it added support for Bitcoin. Recently, Phantom also launched support for Base and supported the Move-based Layer 1 network Sui.

In the past year and a half, Phantom has completed three significant acquisitions:

1. Acquisition of the embedded Wallet operator Bitski in May 2024.
2. Acquiring the security company Blowfish, which provides advanced fraud protection, in November 2024.
3. Acquisition of the token and blockchain data platform SimpleHash in February 2025.

These acquisitions have brought a variety of technologies and expertise to Phantom, helping to streamline the crypto experience, enhance security, and provide users with more comprehensive asset decision support.

Phantom's Market Performance and Challenges

In January of this year, Phantom announced that it raised $150 million in its Series C funding round, bringing its total funding to $268 million and its valuation to $3 billion. At that time, Phantom claimed to have 15 million monthly active users.

The main source of income for Phantom is transaction fees. In November last year, with the rise of the Meme coin craze on a certain network, Phantom's income significantly increased, reaching over 44 million dollars in weekly trading revenue during peak trading times.

However, with the addition of other Wallet products, Phantom is facing pressure in terms of market share. A data panel shows that as of July 9, Phantom's weekly Swap active trader market share is 4%, and its weekly Swap trading volume accounts for only 0.3%.

Nevertheless, Phantom still excels in innovation and market adaptability. Its non-custodial Perptual Futures trading feature, cross-chain Wallet support, and enhanced security and data capabilities through acquisitions keep it competitive in the crypto wallet space.

In the current highly competitive cryptocurrency market, Phantom faces significant challenges. However, its core strategy focused on user experience and technological innovation may provide momentum for future growth. As Phantom continues to develop, whether it can stand out amidst these challenges remains a focal point of industry attention.