Phantom, a crypto wallet for Solana blockchain users, will begin supporting the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains with a public launch in browsers, iOS and Android on Monday, May 1 at 9 a.m. EST, the company told MinRegion exclusively.
Support for the two new blockchains was originally planned for the first quarter of 2023, but has been delayed. The multichain integration will be available to its 3 million users, Brandon Millman, CEO and co-founder of Phantom, told MinRegion.
The new capabilities come more than a year after Phantom reached a $1.2 billion valuation in January 2022 on a $109 million funding round. That round was led by Paradigm and saw participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Capital, Solana and other investors.
Support for Ethereum and Polygon allows Phantom wallet users to transfer assets through blockchains and dApps like Uniswap and Aave, as well as NFT marketplaces like Blur and OpenSea. Users can also now import existing assets from MetaMask, Solana or Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) wallets. “The Phantom multichain is now available wherever MetaMask is,” the company said.
The multichain support will open Phantom to a wider pool of crypto users than the millions of users it currently has from the Solana ecosystem, as wallet owners will be able to trade, hold and interact with all three blockchains (instead of just one) .
“If you have a MetaMask, you can plug in your seed phrase to have everything under one roof,” Millman said. “MetaMask can only handle one seed phrase at a time, but you can manage several here.”
There are other multi-chain crypto wallets in the market, such as Pillar, which has support for Ethereum, Polygon, Gnosis Chain, BNB Chain, and others. But in general, most crypto wallets focus on providing services for single layer-1 blockchains, with Ethereum-focused wallets being the most common. For example, MetaMask allows users to hold and transfer Ethereum or another ERC-20 token, which is derived from the Ethereum blockchain. However, the MetaMask team has said they see potential for a multi-chain world in the future.
Phantom is arguably one of the largest Solana-based wallets, so its opening to other blockchains speaks to the growing potential for a multi-chain world and the possibility that other major players (such as MetaMask) can follow suit.
Phantom’s new capability makes it easier for dApps and other projects to communicate cross-chain with consumers.
“It’s all multi-chain; you can see Solana NFTs next to ETH NFTs,” Millman said. “They all show up in one place.”
The wallet also shows advanced metadata for NFTs, such as current floor prices, sale prices and other factors within the application, he added. “We also have the ability to sell NFTs directly on marketplaces such as Magic Eden and OpenSea and others.”
Phantom is also adding new security features that hide spam sent to crypto wallets in an effort to help prevent phishing, Millman shared. “The analogy is similar to email: sometimes spam emails slip through, but users can just mark it as spam, and over time it gets better and better at catching it.”
All in all, one of the biggest areas of Phantom concern is security, Millman noted. “If you go to a website, we’ll warn you that you’re leaving Phantom, and if we understand a website is malicious, we’ll pre-emptively block it.” Of course, users can ignore the warnings, but Millman advises against this.
The wallet also simulates transactions before they’re approved, so users can see what they’re sending and receiving — and if there’s any cause for concern, too, Millman said.
“There are cases where you fall through all these protective layers and get phishing, but we have a customer support team that is basically available 24/7 and can try to help you with exchanges, a list of local authorities or things like that to route to explore.”
Update: This article was edited after publication to reflect that Phantom’s launch of multichain support has been delayed to Monday, May 1. The previous version of this article stated that the launch would take place on Wednesday, April 26.