Phantom Doubles Down on Derivatives with Strategic Hire
Solana-focused crypto wallet Phantom has hired the founding team behind Ventuals, the project that recently shuttered its high-profile OpenAI and Anthropic perpetual futures markets on the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange. The move signals Phantom’s ambition to evolve from a self-custody wallet into a full-service trading platform, directly integrating advanced derivatives capabilities for its millions of users.
The trio — Alvin Hsia, Emily Hsia, and Aris Samad — will join Phantom’s trading and data divisions, according to CEO Brandon Millman. Their venture, Ventuals, had pioneered onchain perpetual futures for private company valuations, allowing traders to speculate on the theoretical token prices of AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic before they go public. Hyperliquid, the high-performance Layer 1 blockchain built for derivatives, hosted these markets until Ventuals announced its wind-down earlier this month.
Perpetual Futures: Crypto’s Fastest-Growing Product
Perpetual futures — derivatives with no expiration date that track spot prices through funding rates — have become the dominant trading instrument in digital assets. Their 24/7 liquidity, high leverage, and ability to reference any oracle-fed price feed make them ideal for speculation and hedging. Beyond crypto, the product is migrating to traditional finance: prediction market Kalshi recently launched regulated perpetual futures on equities and commodities after CFTC approval, signaling a broader convergence.
For Phantom, integrating perpetuals natively into the wallet experience could unlock a massive retail user base that currently relies on centralized exchanges or complex DeFi interfaces. Millman stated, “Open markets have become a major focus for us. We’ve gone deep on perps, and we intend to go deeper.” He praised Hyperliquid as “one of the best examples anywhere of what open markets make possible,” citing its transparent onchain order book and global liquidity.
Wallet Wars: From Storage to Financial Super-Apps
The hire reflects a wider industry trend: crypto wallets are racing to become all-in-one financial hubs. Competitors like MetaMask (with Snaps), Coinbase Wallet, and Rainbow are embedding swaps, staking, lending, and now derivatives directly into their interfaces. Phantom, already the dominant wallet on Solana with over 10 million users, has aggressively expanded into token swaps, NFT management, and staking. Becoming the primary retail gateway to Hyperliquid’s perpetual markets would cement its position as the “Bloomberg terminal” for Solana-native traders.
Strategic Implications for Hyperliquid Ecosystem
Phantom claims to be the largest distribution partner for Hyperliquid, funneling significant order flow to the exchange. By absorbing the team that built Hyperliquid’s most experimental markets, Phantom gains deep protocol-level expertise to customize the trading experience — potentially offering gasless transactions, simplified margin management, and social trading features. This vertical integration could raise barriers to entry for rival wallets and deepen Phantom’s moat in the Solana ecosystem.
FAQ
What are perpetual futures and why are they important?
Perpetual futures are derivative contracts with no expiry date that track an underlying asset’s price via periodic funding payments between longs and shorts. They offer high leverage, 24/7 trading, and can reference any asset with a reliable price oracle — making them the most liquid and versatile instrument in crypto markets.
How does this hire affect Phantom wallet users?
Users can expect native perpetual futures trading directly inside the Phantom interface, likely with simplified onboarding, gas abstraction, and integration with Hyperliquid’s order book. This removes the need to bridge funds to a separate exchange or navigate complex DeFi front-ends.
Is Hyperliquid a competitor or partner to Phantom?
They are partners. Hyperliquid provides the high-performance matching engine and settlement layer, while Phantom acts as the primary retail distribution channel. The Ventuals team hire strengthens this symbiosis by aligning product development across both stacks.
