Phantom's Evolution: From Solana Wallet to Next-Generation Consumer Finance Platform

Phantom, the self-custodial wallet that has become synonymous with the Solana ecosystem, is undergoing a fundamental transformation. In a wide-ranging conversation on the Lightspeed podcast, Phantom CEO Brandon Millman and Vice President of Operations Sam Rosenblum laid out an ambitious vision for the company's future—one that extends far beyond the traditional wallet paradigm into territory that more closely resembles a comprehensive consumer finance platform. The discussion revealed not only Phantom's strategic thinking around acquisitions, product development, and potential public market ambitions, but also dropped significant alpha about an upcoming key management system that could reshape how users interact with self-custodial wallets.

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The State of Solana DeFi and the Race to Become the Super App

The Solana ecosystem has reached an inflection point where multiple well-funded teams are converging on similar product visions. Jupiter, Pump Fun, and Phantom are all moving toward offering comprehensive suites of DeFi functionality—from meme coin trading to perpetual futures to lending. This convergence raises fundamental questions about differentiation in an increasingly crowded market.

Brandon Millman addressed this head-on, acknowledging that product convergence is not necessarily a negative development. "Over time, we've had a couple different cycles across multiple ecosystems," he explained, noting that innovation in DeFi has led to consolidation around certain use cases, particularly around trading and perpetuals. However, he emphasized that the crypto innovation curve remains far from exhausted, pointing to the unexpected emergence of the 2024 meme coin wave as evidence that new paradigms can emerge without warning.

The question of how Phantom plans to differentiate itself in a world where competitors offer similar features received a thoughtful response. Sam Rosenblum, who joined Phantom after six years in crypto venture capital, highlighted the critical interplay between innovation and distribution. "We've got a lot of users all over the world, tens of millions of users over the world with value sitting in Phantom accounts today," he noted. This distribution advantage, combined with Phantom's reputation for exceptional user experience, forms the foundation of their competitive moat.

Usability as Phantom's North Star

Before discussing distribution or innovation advantages, Millman was quick to identify usability as Phantom's fundamental differentiator. "Pretty much anyone who's familiar with Phantom knows that it's synonymous with great user experience and has helped Solana be viewed as a chain with great usability and UX," he stated. This focus on usability isn't merely a product strategy—it represents Phantom's core thesis about what the crypto space needs to achieve mainstream adoption.

The company was built around the conviction that usability represents the highest leverage intervention possible for pushing crypto toward mass adoption. While this might seem obvious, Millman acknowledged that actually executing on this vision has proven remarkably difficult, particularly when attempting to marry excellent user experience with the bleeding-edge innovation happening on-chain. Phantom's mission, as he framed it, is to take whatever innovative applications emerge in the crypto ecosystem and make them "as safe and easy to use and safe to use for a broad mainstream audience."

The Super App Vision Takes Shape

Recent months have seen Phantom make decisive moves to expand beyond its wallet origins. The integration of perpetual futures trading via Hyperliquid and the acquisition of SoulSniper, a Solana trading terminal, represent deliberate steps toward a broader product vision. When asked whether this represents a conscious strategy to evolve beyond the wallet paradigm, Millman was unequivocal: "This next leg for Phantom is all about going from just being viewed as Phantom wallet to being viewed as this consumer finance platform—the next generation consumer finance platform for the next gen internet native."

This transformation encompasses furnishing users with comprehensive access to on-chain financial applications. The Hyperliquid integration, functioning as a first-party white-labeled feature within Phantom, exemplifies how the company envisions building out this consumer finance stack. Rather than simply connecting users to external services, Phantom is increasingly bringing these experiences directly into the wallet interface.

The Hyperliquid Decision: User Maximalists Over Solana Maximalists

Perhaps the most interesting strategic revelation came in Phantom's explanation of why they chose Hyperliquid for their perpetuals integration over Solana-native alternatives. Given Phantom's origins and deep alignment with the Solana ecosystem, this decision warranted explanation, and Millman provided it with characteristic directness.

"Phantom is still very majorly aligned with Solana strategically. The vast majority of our development efforts, users, and things that are going on at Phantom are still very Solana first," he emphasized, recounting how the founding team came from the Ethereum ecosystem specifically because they saw Solana pushing the needle on usability through fast, cheap infrastructure. The team remains, in his words, "very much Solana maxis and Solana bulls."

However, Millman introduced a crucial hierarchy of priorities: "Before us being Solana maximalists, let's say we're user maximalists first." This framing puts user needs above ecosystem loyalty, and in the case of perpetual futures trading, the objective data pointed clearly to Hyperliquid. "Price execution, liquidity, and all of that is in some cases an order of magnitude greater on Hyperliquid," he explained. To ignore this reality would constitute a "pretty big disservice to users."

The results have validated this user-first approach. Phantom has become the number one venue for trading perpetuals on Hyperliquid outside of Hyperliquid's main interface, the number one user of builder codes, and the number one source of new referrals to the platform. "We've become the number one venue to trade perps on Hyperliquid outside of the main Hyperliquid interface itself," Millman confirmed, noting that these metrics can be independently verified across various dashboards.

The Strategic Importance of Owning the End User

The conversation turned to a broader strategic thesis that has gained currency in crypto circles: the critical importance of owning the end user rather than being squeezed out as a middleware provider. This insight, which the Blockworks research team has been emphasizing, reflects lessons learned from how value accrues in digital businesses.

Millman situated this insight within a broader historical context, referencing Ben Thompson's Stratechery blog and its analysis of how, in the internet age, owning the end user has proven to be one of the most strategically important positions a company can occupy. While products like Axiom have found success combining meme coins and Hyperliquid perpetuals into a single interface, Millman noted that Axiom's audience "leans a little bit heavier towards much more advanced meme coin traders," suggesting different market positions.

The question of whether Phantom's users are price sensitive—given that wallets can potentially charge premiums for convenience—received a nuanced response from Rosenblum. Phantom's user base is predominantly mobile-forward, seeking to execute transactions in real-time without extended deliberation. "Generally speaking, those are attributes that get users to that premium pricing type of tier," he explained. However, Phantom positions its pricing "in between what a Coinbase consumer pricing would be and a Coinbase pro trading pricing would be."

The guiding principle, Rosenblum emphasized, is providing the optimal overall user experience, of which pricing is just one component. "We're not trying to turn the screws as much as possible. We're just trying to provide the overall optimal experience."

On-Chain Equities: Hype or Substance?

The discussion touched on the emerging narrative around on-chain equities and tokenized real-world assets. Millman offered a measured assessment, applauding teams working to bring traditional finance on-chain while acknowledging the uphill battle they face, particularly around issuer adoption. For Phantom's vision of becoming "the consumer finance platform of the future," this means eventually granting users access to a comprehensive world of financial applications—both bleeding-edge on-chain products and traditional finance instruments.

However, Millman indicated where he sees the more immediate opportunity: "I think where the real gas is left in the tank or where the real next leg for crypto is on this more bleeding edge front, which includes things like perps, prediction markets, things like that."

Rosenblum added important context about the timeline for asset class expansion, drawing on his venture experience. He pointed to the remarkable evolution of on-chain dollars over the past decade—from "effectively non-existent or not really widely observed as real to where we are today" with US legislation now in place. For other asset classes like equities, "it's the same question, it's just a matter of time," dependent not just on technological feasibility but on regulatory sentiment shifts.

Aggressive M&A: Phantom's Growth Engine

One of the most newsworthy elements of the discussion centered on Phantom's acquisitions strategy. In announcing the SoulSniper acquisition, Millman stated that Phantom is "looking to aggressively grow through acquisitions in the coming months." The conversation provided substantial color on this strategy and its execution.

Rosenblum, drawing on his corporate M&A experience dating back to early Coinbase, described how crypto's evolving metas, regulatory landscape, and building blocks create ongoing opportunities to tap into the dynamic between innovation and distribution. "We're in this really great position where we get to talk to founders literally on a daily basis about the opportunity to join forces," he explained.

Phantom recently promoted Joe Watkins to become its first Head of Corporate Development. In his first 30 days, Watkins has spoken with 30 different founders—a pace that Rosenblum indicated will only continue. Over the past 12 months, Phantom has successfully completed four acquisitions, and the company views this as just the beginning.

The Four Acquisitions: Building Blocks of the Super App

Millman detailed the four acquisitions Phantom has completed, revealing the strategic logic behind each:

Bitsky (approximately one year ago): An embedded wallet solution addressing key management and recovery challenges.

Blowfish (end of last year): A web3 security company specializing in transaction simulation technology for wallets, which Millman knew well through personal connections—he went to college with Fabio, Blowfish's CEO, and they worked together at 0x, an early DeFi project on Ethereum.

Simple Hash (early this year): A data indexer and API provider focused on helping apps surface token balances, token metadata, and—perhaps more importantly—token spam identification, which remains "a huge problem and still continues to be a pretty huge problem in the on-chain landscape."

SoulSniper (most recent): A Solana trading terminal whose acquisition accelerates Phantom's entry into advanced trading functionality.

The strategic coherence across these acquisitions is notable: Bitsky addresses recovery problems, Blowfish tackles the checkout flow and transaction simulation experience, Simple Hash handles spam identification, and SoulSniper provides trading capabilities. Together, they form the building blocks of a comprehensive consumer finance experience.

The Art of Successful M&A Integration

The conversation turned to the challenge that often dooms corporate acquisitions: integration. Rosenblum was emphatic about the difficulty and importance of this phase: "If you can't get the integration right, you should slow down and do a lot less M&A." Finding willing sellers and compatible founders is one challenge; actually integrating acquired teams and products successfully is where value is created or destroyed.

What impressed Rosenblum when he joined Phantom five months ago was that the company had already completed three acquisitions without a formal corporate development function—and the integrations were working. "Usually for companies as they're just getting started with that M&A or corp dev function, that's the hard part," he noted. This execution capability, more than the deal-making itself, represents Phantom's true competitive advantage in the M&A arena.

The most revealing advice for companies new to M&A came in Rosenblum's suggestion to "start by acquiring and integrating founders and teams that you already know pretty well." This cheat code explains why prior relationships have characterized several of Phantom's acquisitions.

Founder Fit Over Financial Maximization

Millman expanded on what makes acquisitions successful at Phantom, emphasizing the importance of "founder company fit" or "team company fit." When evaluating potential acquisitions, the question isn't solely whether a company's product will accelerate Phantom's strategic roadmap—it's whether the team's DNA is something Phantom wants to infuse into the company.

The Bitsky and Blowfish acquisitions exemplified this approach, with Phantom having long-standing relationships with those teams. SoulSniper represented a different dynamic—no prior personal relationship with founder Max existed—but Max's deep engagement with the Solana community and respect for builders in the ecosystem demonstrated the right cultural alignment.

Rosenblum offered an important insight about acquisition dynamics: "I've found actually, the really important thing here for maybe a positive leading indicator of when the integration is going to go really well is when the founder of the potential acquired company is not just motivated by maximizing the valuation of the deal." When financial outcomes drive the seller primarily, integrations tend to suffer. Successful acquisitions require genuine enthusiasm about the combination.

Market Dynamics: Seller's Market Conditions

The discussion acknowledged current market dynamics affecting M&A in crypto. The regulatory shift around stablecoins, particularly following the Stripe-Bridge acquisition, has created genuine seller's market conditions in certain categories. As Rosenblum noted, "You really feel those pendulum swings in terms of who's in the advantage position between the sellers and the buyers."

From his venture experience, he observed how valuations respond to narrative shifts—stablecoin platforms are currently fielding substantial inbound interest from both investors and potential acquirers. However, Phantom has learned to navigate these dynamics by focusing on cultural fit and integration potential rather than getting caught up in market momentum.

IPO Considerations: A Tool, Not a Goal

With Circle's recent public market success and Coinbase's established track record, the conversation naturally turned to whether Phantom is considering an IPO. Millman's framing was notably measured: "The way that we view going IPO is sort of as more of a tool in the toolbox versus an end state."

Phantom's vision extends to building a "generational company with generational impact" that plays a significant role in bringing crypto mainstream. Going public or accessing public markets represents one potential tool for achieving that vision, not a validation moment or end state. Internally, Phantom already measures itself against public company standards in terms of operational maturity, profitability, and revenue quality.

Rosenblum elaborated on the two primary reasons companies go public: access to capital markets and operational maturity. On the first point, Phantom finds itself fortunate—when capital is needed, they can raise it privately with their "tremendous cap table." The Stripe comparison is apt: a company that accesses private capital as needed rather than feeling compelled toward public markets.

The operational maturity question receives more attention internally. Coinbase has demonstrated what public investors respond to—revenue predictability, diversified revenue streams—and Phantom uses those benchmarks even as a private company. "We try to think through that lens, like how would the public market react to this," Rosenblum explained.

Why Not Go Public Now?

Despite favorable market conditions with recent crypto IPOs, Phantom isn't rushing toward the public markets. Millman cited the "huge operational complexity that gets added into a company once you take that step" from reporting and compliance perspectives and functional manpower requirements. "For as long as we can not necessarily take on those extra burdens and focus all of our attention and resources into building the best business possible, I think that's what we're going to do."

This perspective reflects a maturing crypto industry where going public is understood as one path among many, not the inevitable destination for successful companies. The broader tech world offers examples of companies that could have gone public long ago but chose to remain private—an option that's increasingly available to crypto companies as well.

The Vision: First Finance App for the Next Generation

Perhaps the most compelling moment in the discussion came when addressing a tweet from investor Anand (owner of the coveted Twitter handle @ai and a Lightspeed investor): "Just set up my 11 year old's first crypto wallet on Phantom. She will likely never need a traditional bank. The future shouldn't be inherited."

This anecdote prompted Millman to articulate Phantom's core thesis about generational adoption. He pushed back against the common crypto industry framing that applications need to be "easy enough for your grandma to use." Instead, Phantom is positioning itself for "that next generation internet native, right? That's where all the growth is going to happen. That's where all of the early adopters are and really where the bleeding edge is going to happen."

Millman expressed genuine belief that Gen Z and subsequent generations will conduct their financial lives primarily through "consumer finance apps that live on their phone or live where they are living, not necessarily Schwab.com or even Bank of America." The advent and regulatory acceptance of stablecoins is accelerating this future. "I think we're not too far from the future where someone's first sort of foray into the finance landscape is going to be downloading Phantom and loading it up with dollars, which are technically going to be stablecoins living on a non-custodial wallet."

Self-Custody Challenges and Solutions

The ambitious vision of replacing traditional banking raises fundamental questions about whether self-custody can scale to a mainstream audience. Self-custody has been a cornerstone of crypto ideology but also one of its most significant barriers to adoption—most people don't want to manage seed phrases or risk losing assets through user error.

Millman provided a comprehensive breakdown of the self-custody challenge, noting it encompasses multiple distinct problems: seed phrase management and recovery, interaction with on-chain protocols, transaction simulation flows, spam protection, and identifying safe versus dangerous sites. Solving self-custody isn't a single problem—it requires a holistic approach across numerous surface areas.

Phantom's acquisition strategy aligns directly with addressing these challenges: Bitsky for recovery, Blowfish for the checkout flow, Simple Hash for spam identification. But the most significant revelation came when Millman teased what's coming next.

Alpha Drop: Next-Generation Key Management

When asked directly whether true web2-style login with self-custody is achievable—where lost passwords can be recovered via email without security tradeoffs—Millman provided what may be the most significant announcement of the discussion.

"We are currently designing sort of a next generation key management system solution, both for internal use, but also for use externally with other dapps and things like that as well," he revealed. While declining to share extensive details, he indicated it will address many current solution limitations, particularly those that "break some of the great pros of composability that crypto brings with these open permissionless ecosystems."

The timeline is aggressive: "Expect more there definitely before the end of the year." This suggests Phantom is preparing to ship a significant product that could fundamentally improve the self-custody experience while maintaining the benefits of composable, permissionless systems.

Technologies Enabling the Future

Millman touched on the technological building blocks making this vision possible, mentioning "premier secret sharing, server-side wallets with trusted execution environments and TEE and all that." These technologies create pathways to delivering web2-caliber convenience without fully sacrificing self-custody principles.

However, he emphasized that key management represents just one piece of the puzzle. The comprehensive safe self-custody experience requires addressing spam encounters, site safety identification, and the broader holistic experience. "It's really going to take like a holistic approach across all of those to really deliver this true, safe, self custody experience."

Advice for Crypto Founders

The discussion concluded with founder advice that reflected both executives' extensive experience building and evaluating crypto companies.

Rosenblum emphasized the importance of user research, noting something that has "stuck with me since I've been in the space is just the idea that you've just got to talk to your users like way more than you realize." He recounted his Coinbase experience building multi-sig vaults in response to user requests—only to discover very few people actually used the product. "I think just getting out there, talking to your users, understanding what's pragmatic versus what's ideological and where you want to fit in that spectrum" represents essential founder discipline.

Phantom, from its inception, has been "very, very pragmatic"—a guiding principle that serves as a north star for product decisions. For founders starting out in crypto specifically, Rosenblum's advice was to ensure the value proposition genuinely resonates with users: "If you can do that for a small group to start, you can generally find a way to expand it over time."

Beyond the App: Holistic User Experience

Millman offered complementary advice focused on the breadth of user experience. "When people think about building for users, they tend to jump straight into thinking about user experience UI and just sort of how a user might use your app once they're in the walls of the app," he observed. This narrow view misses how users actually interact with products and brands.

The user journey encompasses customer support, brand marketing, and numerous touchpoints beyond the application interface itself. "Just really thinking about how a user interacts with your brand from front to back is really important."

His second piece of advice addressed the constant temptation toward feature proliferation: "Do fewer things very well." Crypto's rapid-fire emergence of new trends and metas can create panic about falling behind, but Phantom's experience suggests that doubling down on core strengths—speed, reliability, safety—builds stronger brands and more successful companies than perpetual feature chasing.

The Bigger Picture: Solana's Position in the Consumer Finance Future

Throughout the conversation, a consistent theme emerged about Solana's unique positioning in the broader crypto landscape. Phantom chose to build on Solana specifically because the team—despite coming from the Ethereum ecosystem—recognized Solana's advantages in building fast, cheap infrastructure that enables superior user experiences downstream.

This perspective reinforces Solana's role as the chain most aligned with mainstream consumer adoption. While other ecosystems compete on various technical dimensions, Solana's focus on usability at the infrastructure level creates compounding advantages for consumer applications like Phantom.

The Hyperliquid integration decision, while it might seem like a departure from Solana-first principles, actually reinforces the broader thesis. Phantom chose Hyperliquid because it offered the best user experience for perpetual trading—the same user-first philosophy that led them to Solana originally. When Solana-native perpetual products reach competitive parity, Phantom's user-first approach would naturally lead them back.

Market Evolution and Phantom's Place in It

As Solana's DeFi ecosystem matures, the convergence toward similar product offerings that the discussion identified represents not a crisis but a natural market evolution. The same pattern played out in traditional fintech, where banks, payment apps, and investment platforms gradually adopted overlapping feature sets.

What differentiates winners in such environments is precisely what Phantom emphasizes: user experience, brand trust, and distribution. The company's willingness to acquire capability rather than build everything in-house demonstrates strategic maturity unusual in crypto, where "not invented here" syndrome often prevails.

The next chapter for Phantom—from wallet to consumer finance platform—represents perhaps the most ambitious pivot in the Solana ecosystem. Success would create a powerful native financial application that could compete with traditional fintech players for the next generation of users, validating Solana's infrastructure advantages in the most commercially significant way possible.

Conclusion: Building for Generations

The Phantom story, as articulated by Millman and Rosenblum, is ultimately about timeline compression. Traditional financial institutions have spent decades building the systems and relationships that define modern finance. Crypto and Solana specifically offer the opportunity to compress that timeline dramatically.

An eleven-year-old setting up their first Phantom wallet today—as in Anand's tweet—genuinely may never need a traditional bank. If Phantom succeeds in delivering its vision of a self-custodial consumer finance platform with web2-caliber usability, they will have created the financial infrastructure for a generation that approaches money from entirely different first principles.

The alpha on next-generation key management arriving before year-end suggests Phantom is preparing to make significant strides toward that vision in the near term. Combined with aggressive M&A activity, operational maturity approaching public company standards, and distribution advantages that few crypto products can match, Phantom enters its next chapter with formidable assets.

For the Solana ecosystem, Phantom's evolution represents both validation and opportunity. The chain that made usability a priority at the infrastructure level now hosts perhaps the most ambitious consumer finance application in crypto—one that explicitly chose Solana because of those usability advantages. As Phantom builds toward becoming the financial application for the next generation, Solana's bet on usability continues to pay dividends.

Facts + Figures

• Phantom has completed four acquisitions in the last 12 months: Bitsky (embedded wallets), Blowfish (web3 security/transaction simulation), Simple Hash (data indexing and spam identification), and SoulSniper (Solana trading terminal)

• Phantom has become the #1 venue for trading perpetuals on Hyperliquid outside of Hyperliquid's main interface, the #1 user of builder codes, and the #1 source of new referrals to Hyperliquid

• Phantom has tens of millions of users worldwide with value sitting in Phantom accounts, representing significant distribution advantage

• Joe Watkins was recently promoted to Phantom's first Head of Corporate Development and has spoken with 30 different founders in his first 30 days

• Phantom's founding team previously worked at 0x, an early DeFi project on Ethereum, for close to four years before moving to build on Solana

• Sam Rosenblum joined Phantom approximately five months ago after spending six years in crypto venture capital

• Brandon Millman started at Coinbase in 2014 and began doing M&A for the company around 2017

• Phantom is designing a next-generation key management system expected to launch before the end of 2025, for both internal use and external dapps

• Phantom's pricing positions between Coinbase consumer and Coinbase pro trading tiers, targeting a premium but accessible price point

• Brandon Millman attended college with Fabio, CEO of Blowfish, which facilitated the acquisition relationship

• The team describes themselves as "user maximalists first" before being "Solana maximalists", prioritizing user experience over ecosystem loyalty when making integration decisions

• Phantom chose Hyperliquid for perpetuals integration because price execution and liquidity were "in some cases an order of magnitude greater" than Solana-native alternatives

• Phantom views going public as "a tool in the toolbox versus an end state" and measures itself against public company standards despite remaining private

• Technologies mentioned for future key management include premier secret sharing, server-side wallets with trusted execution environments (TEE)

• Phantom was built around the thesis that usability is "the highest leverage thing that we can work on as a space in order to really push forward mainstream adoption"

Questions Answered

What is Phantom's vision for the future beyond being a wallet?

Phantom is evolving from a wallet into a comprehensive consumer finance platform for the next generation of internet-native users. CEO Brandon Millman explicitly stated that "this next leg for Phantom is all about going from just being viewed as Phantom wallet to being viewed as this consumer finance platform—the next generation consumer finance platform for the next gen internet native." This means furnishing users with access to everything happening on-chain, including advanced trading features, perpetual futures, and eventually traditional finance instruments. The goal is to become the primary financial application for Gen Z and subsequent generations who will conduct their financial lives through phone-based apps rather than traditional banks.

Why did Phantom choose Hyperliquid over Solana-native perpetuals platforms?

Phantom chose Hyperliquid because the user experience and execution quality were objectively superior, despite the team being deeply aligned with Solana strategically. Brandon Millman explained that "price execution, liquidity, and all of that is in some cases an order of magnitude greater on Hyperliquid," and ignoring this reality would be "doing a pretty big disservice to users." Phantom describes itself as "user maximalists first" before being "Solana maximalists," meaning they prioritize what serves users best rather than maintaining ecosystem loyalty when the two conflict. The decision has been validated by Phantom becoming the number one venue for trading perpetuals on Hyperliquid outside of the main interface.

Is Phantom considering going public?

Phantom views an IPO as a potential tool rather than an end goal and isn't rushing toward public markets despite favorable conditions. Brandon Millman explained that Phantom already measures itself against public company standards in terms of operational maturity, profitability, and revenue quality, but sees significant operational complexity that would divert resources from building the business. The company has a strong cap table that provides access to private capital when needed—similar to how Stripe operates—removing the primary motivation for many companies to go public. Sam Rosenblum noted they focus on the operational maturity aspects that public investors reward, like revenue predictability and diversification, while avoiding the reporting and compliance burdens until truly necessary.

What acquisitions has Phantom made and why?

Phantom has completed four acquisitions in the past 12 months, each addressing specific aspects of their super app vision. Bitsky provides embedded wallet solutions for key management and recovery challenges. Blowfish delivers web3 security and transaction simulation technology to improve the checkout flow. Simple Hash offers data indexing for token balances and metadata, plus spam identification capabilities. SoulSniper brings advanced Solana trading functionality. The company recently promoted Joe Watkins to its first Head of Corporate Development, and he has spoken with 30 different founders in his first 30 days, indicating continued aggressive M&A activity ahead.

How does Phantom plan to make self-custody mainstream?

Phantom is developing a next-generation key management system expected before end of 2025 that will address many current limitations of self-custody. Brandon Millman explained that self-custody challenges span multiple problems: seed phrase recovery, on-chain protocol interaction, transaction simulation, spam protection, and site safety identification. Technologies mentioned include premier secret sharing and server-side wallets with trusted execution environments (TEE). Their acquisitions directly support this vision—Bitsky for recovery, Blowfish for transaction flows, Simple Hash for spam. Millman expressed confidence that delivering web2-caliber convenience with self-custody benefits is achievable and that "it's going to take a player like us to actually package that together."

What advice do the Phantom leaders have for crypto founders?

The executives emphasized two key principles: talk to users far more than you think necessary, and do fewer things very well. Sam Rosenblum shared a cautionary tale from early Coinbase where they built multi-sig vaults in response to user requests, only to find very few people actually used it. Understanding "what's pragmatic versus what's ideological" is essential for founders. Brandon Millman added that founders should think holistically about user experience beyond just the app interface—customer support, brand marketing, and the entire journey matter. Rather than chasing every new crypto meta, doubling down on core strengths like speed, reliability, and safety builds stronger brands and companies.

How does Phantom differentiate itself as DeFi products converge?

Phantom's primary differentiator is usability, which the team views as their fundamental competitive advantage. Before distribution or innovation, Brandon Millman emphasized that Phantom has become "synonymous with great user experience and has helped Solana be viewed as a chain with great usability and UX." The company was built around the thesis that usability represents the highest-leverage intervention for mainstream crypto adoption. Sam Rosenblum added that their distribution to tens of millions of users worldwide creates a responsibility and opportunity to bring value, while their consumer-first approach and premium but accessible pricing position them distinctly from more advanced trading-focused competitors.

What makes Phantom's M&A approach successful?

Phantom focuses on founder-company fit rather than just strategic product value, prioritizing relationships and cultural alignment over deal valuation. Sam Rosenblum noted that "the really important thing here for a positive leading indicator of when the integration is going to go really well is when the founder of the potential acquired company is not just motivated by maximizing the valuation of the deal." Several acquisitions involved teams Phantom knew well—Brandon attended college with Blowfish's CEO and worked with him at 0x for years. For companies new to M&A, Rosenblum's advice is to "start by acquiring and integrating founders and teams that you already know pretty well" as a cheat code for successful integration.

How is Phantom positioned relative to traditional fintech and banks?

Phantom is positioning as the financial application for a generation that will never need traditional banks. Brandon Millman believes Gen Z and subsequent generations will conduct their financial lives through "consumer finance apps that live on their phone," not traditional institutions. With stablecoin adoption advancing and regulatory clarity emerging, he envisions a near future where "someone's first foray into the finance landscape is going to be downloading Phantom and loading it up with dollars, which are technically going to be stablecoins living on a non-custodial wallet." The company explicitly targets next-generation internet natives rather than pursuing the common goal of making crypto "easy enough for your grandma."