Phantom’s Strategic Pivot to Perpetuals: Infrastructure Play or Competitive Necessity?

Executive summary

Phantom, a leading self-custody wallet, has hired the team behind Ventuals—Alvin Hsia, Emily Hsia, and Aris Samad—to bolster its perpetual futures development, according to a report by CoinDesk. The Ventuals team previously operated high-profile, on-chain perpetual markets for private companies like OpenAI and Anthropic on the Hyperliquid ecosystem before winding down operations earlier this month. Phantom CEO Brandon Millman stated that this move is intended to deepen the wallet’s integration with open market infrastructure.

This hiring is a strategic response to the evolving role of crypto wallets. As the market matures, wallets are increasingly competing to capture trading volume by offering native derivative products rather than serving merely as storage interfaces. By leveraging the expertise of the Ventuals team, Phantom aims to capitalize on the growing demand for perpetual futures, which allow for continuous, non-expiring speculation on a wide array of assets. The move underscores a broader industry trend where wallet providers prioritize user retention through integrated, high-liquidity financial products.

Why it matters

From a market structure perspective, this move represents a significant attempt by Phantom to capture a larger share of the retail and semi-professional trading flow. By moving "deeper" into perps, Phantom is attempting to internalize trading volume that would otherwise migrate to centralized exchanges or specialized front-ends. The success of this strategy relies on the wallet's ability to maintain competitive liquidity and execution speeds, which are the primary determinants of volume in the perpetual futures market.

Historically, the integration of trading features into wallets has been a mixed success; while it increases user "stickiness," it also introduces significant regulatory and operational risks. The hiring of the Ventuals team suggests that Phantom is prioritizing the technical sophistication required to handle complex on-chain order books and risk management. If successful, this could shift a meaningful portion of Hyperliquid-related volume directly through the Phantom interface, potentially increasing the wallet's fee-based revenue. However, the impact on the broader market remains moderate, as it primarily reinforces existing ecosystem dynamics rather than creating new, exogenous capital inflows.