The digital wallet Phantom, which until now has only operated on the Solana (SOL) blockchain, has announced that it will soon open up to the Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC) blockchains. With its simple and fluid interface, Phantom presents itself as a strong competitor to the giant MetaMask.
Phantom lands on Ethereum and Polygon
Rumors have been circulating for several weeks and the announcement was highly anticipated by the community. It is now official: the Phantom digital wallet will soon be compatible with the Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC) blockchains.
Phantom is a digital cryptocurrency wallet, initially designed to interact with the Solana (SOL) blockchain. It exists as a mobile app and a web extension, available on Google Chrome, Brave, Firefox and Microsoft Edge browsers.
By making itself compatible with the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains, Phantom hopes to “bring together communities across Web3” to facilitate “mainstream adoption,” as CEO and co-founder Brandom Millman explains to our TechCrunch colleagues:
“In the same way that people don’t switch web browsers to access different websites, we think Web3 needs a single portfolio to access everything you need. […] We always understood that the world would eventually evolve into a multi-channel system.”
The new Ethereum and Polygon integrations are currently in beta, with a goal of a public launch in Q1 2023. It is still possible to join the waiting list to be among the first to experience multi-chain wallet usage.
Currently, Phantom claims more than 2.5 million daily users and more than 25 million transactions via decentralized apps per month. However, the recent decline of Solana – highly correlated with the fall of the FTX platform – has directly impacted these numbers and certainly justifies this opening to other blockchains and ecosystems.
With its fluid and easy-to-use interface, Phantom is a strong competitor to MetaMask, currently the leader in digital wallets on Ethereum. Moreover, the timing seems perfect. Indeed, MetaMask found itself in turmoil after its parent company announced that it was collecting personal data from its users.
