Phantom Expands Perpetual Futures Power with Hyperliquid Talent Acquisition

Phantom, a leading self‑custody crypto wallet, announced that it has recruited the creators of Ventuals—Alvin Hsia, Emily Hsia, and Aris Samad—who recently shut down their OpenAI and Anthropic perpetual‑futures markets on Hyperliquid. The three will join Phantom’s trading and data teams, as confirmed by CEO Brandon Millman.

This hiring represents Phantom’s most aggressive push yet into perpetual‑futures trading, a derivative product that lets traders speculate on price movements without an expiration date. Such contracts provide 24/7 liquidity and can track a wide range of assets, from cryptocurrencies to private‑company equity.

Why This Matters

Perpetual markets have become one of the fastest‑growing segments in both traditional finance and crypto. In traditional finance, they are used for commodities, interest‑rate products, and equity indices. In crypto, they now account for billions of dollars of daily trading volume and serve as a key liquidity driver for many exchanges.

By absorbing the Ventuals talent, Phantom aims to deepen its product suite, improve order‑book depth, and launch new market‑making tools. Analysts believe this could accelerate the convergence of crypto derivatives with traditional financial infrastructure, giving retail users access to sophisticated trading capabilities.

Expert Commentary

“Bringing the Ventuals team on board gives Phantom the technical horsepower to build more sophisticated perpetual products,” said Maya Patel, a crypto analyst at DLT Insights. “It also signals that major wallet providers are moving beyond passive storage into active market making, which could fundamentally reshape how retail users access derivatives.”

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is a perpetual future? A perpetual future is a derivative contract that does not expire, allowing traders to maintain positions as long as they meet margin requirements. Funding rates are used to keep the contract price aligned with the underlying asset’s spot price.
• How does hiring a specialized team affect a crypto wallet’s growth? Adding experienced engineers and traders accelerates product development, improves execution speed, and expands the wallet’s functionality from a simple storage tool to an active trading platform, potentially attracting more active users.
• Will this hiring impact the price of Phantom’s native token? In the short term, market sentiment may cause price fluctuations, but long‑term price movements will depend on product launches, user adoption, and broader market conditions.

Phantom’s strategic move exemplifies a broader industry trend: crypto companies are evolving from custodial services to full‑service financial platforms, blurring the line between wallets and brokerages.