Phantom, the leading crypto wallet in the Solana ecosystem, said Tuesday it will add support for assets on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains, with the roll out beginning in about three months, according to a representative.
The self-custody wallet, which is built on closed-source code, will take aim at Ethereum ecosystem stalwarts such as Metamask, which is open source. Phantom’s likely bet is that its slick user interface will power it forward on the system, just as it did for Solana, where it says it has 3 million active users.
The face-off has been a long time coming. CEO Brandon Millman previously told CoinDesk that Phantom’s team meant to challenge Ethereum wallets in 2021 before doubling down to the then-nascent Solana ecosystem, where it became a go-to wallet for many retail users.
Solana’s short-term prospects have shifted mightily in recent days. This month’s sudden collapse of FTX and Alameda, major supporters of the ecosystem, triggered a drop in Solana-linked asset prices and cast chaos among the blockchain’s builders. Some projects are now planning to pivot to other ecosystems. A representative for Phantom said the wallet remains committed to Solana.
Phantom’s multichain strategy will focus on non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with protections against malicious spam drops and added capabilities for viewing multimedia NFTs, a press release said.
Phantom is working with Polygon on the Polygon wallet, the release said.
