Crypto wallet Phantom adds public multichain support for Ethereum and Polygon

Image credit: The Phantom

Phantom, a crypto wallet for Solana blockchain users, has expanded its support for the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains in a public launch across browsers, iOS and Android, the company told TechCrunch exclusively.

Support for the two new blockchains was originally planned for the first quarter of 2023, but was pushed back to today. The multichain integration will be available to the three million users, Brandon Millman, CEO and co-founder of Phantom, told TechCrunch.

The new features come more than a year after Phantom was valued at $1.2 billion in a $109 million funding round in January 2022. That round was led by Paradigm, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Capital, Solana and others investors.

Support for Ethereum and Polygon will allow Phantom wallet users to transfer assets across blockchains and dApps such as Uniswap and Aave as well as NFT marketplaces such as Blur and OpenSea. Users can now also import existing assets from MetaMask, Solana or Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) wallets. “Phantom multichain is now available everywhere MetaMask is,” the company said.

The multi-chain support will open up Phantom to a wider pool of crypto users beyond the millions of users it currently has from the Solana ecosystem, given that wallet owners can trade, hold and interact across all three blockchains (as opposed to 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 set at a time, but you can manage several here.”

There are other multi-chain crypto wallets on the market such as Pillar, which provides 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 that they see potential for a multi-chain world in the future.

Phantom is arguably one of the largest Solana-based wallets, so the opening to other blockchains speaks to the growing potential for a multi-chain world and the possibility that other major players (such as MetaMask) could follow suit.

Phantom’s new capabilities could also allow dApps and other projects to interact with consumers more easily across chains.

“It’s all multi-chain; you can see Solana NFTs next to ETH NFTs,” Millman said. “They all appear in one place.”

The wallet also displays advanced metadata for NFTs such as current floor prices, selling prices and other factors in the application, he added. “We also have the ability to sell NFTs directly to marketplaces like Magic Eden and OpenSea and others.”

Phantom also adds new security features that hide spam sent to crypto wallets in an effort to prevent phishing, Millman shared. “The analogy is similar to email: sometimes spam emails get through, but users can just mark it as spam, and over time it gets better and better at catching it.”

Overall, safety is one of the biggest areas of concern for Phantom, Millman noted. “If you go to a site, we’ll give you a warning that you’re leaving Phantom, and if we understand that a site is harmful, we’ll preemptively block it.” Obviously, users can ignore the warnings, but Millman advises against doing so.

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 there, too, Millman said.

“There are cases where you fall through all these protective layers and get phished, but we have a customer support team that is basically 24/7 and can try to help you with exchanges, directory of local authorities or things like that to explore routes”, Millman said. “I think that’s a big thing, because afterwards you usually don’t know what you can do.”