Phantom pivots to Ethereum and Polygon to become a multi-chain wallet

• Phantom wallet recently announced that it was enabling functionality for assets on Ethereum and Polygon
• The wallet’s multi-chain strategy would focus on NFTs

Phantom, a Solana-focused cryptocurrency wallet, announced it would move to other chains on 29 November. This action followed the recent difficulties Solana had had following the demise of FTX. Could the FTX collapse have been a driving force behind this decision, or were there other influences?

Ethereum and Polygon are now Phantom-able

On Tuesday, 29 November, the leading Solana wallet, Phantom, announced that it would enable functionality for assets on the Polygon and Ethereum blockchains.

The company claimed that the perceived necessity for self-custody had driven it to expand its product to these other significant blockchains in the wake of the FTX crash.

Additionally, it explained that authorizing usage on these chains allowed users to access resources from several chains in a single location. The action was also intended to advance the wallet’s goal of developing into a multi-chain wallet.

Phantom claimed that it collaborated with Solana closely to create a premium wallet experience and now had more than three million users. The business has also announced that the private multi-chain beta would start in the coming weeks, with a public release scheduled for later this year.

A masterstroke?

Phantom’s move coincides with more scrutiny being placed on one of the biggest Ethereum wallets. A lot of criticism has recently been directed at the Ethereum-based wallet Metamask due to its revised privacy policy. According to the new privacy policy, users that used Infura on Metamask would have their transaction information and IP addresses stored.

The abrupt failure of FTX and Alameda this month, two of the ecosystem’s biggest backers, caused a plunge in Solana-linked asset prices and unnerved blockchain developers on the network.

Phantom’s main aim had been transitioning into a multi-chain network; thus, this development may have merely hastened the process. Non-fungible tokens (NFT) will be at the center of Phantom’s multi-chain strategy, with safeguards against spam dumps and enhanced support for viewing NFTs that include media.

Phantom’s potential migration to various blockchains would provide users, particularly those on the Ethereum blockchain, a competitive choice. Users would have centralized access to all of their assets with the addition of these chains.

The success of this new venture, and the percentage of the market it will be able to seize, will depend on the reaction of its target audience.