Solana's Wallet Phantom has Secured a $109M Series B Investment Led by Paradigm

Solana’s wallet Phantom has secured a $109 million Series B investment led by cryptocurrency firm Paradigm.

Wallet, as the most critical user touchpoint, acts as a gateway for exchanges and smart contracts. Phantom is valued at $1.2 billion after this round of financing, which officially made Phantom a unicorn.

A unicorn is a technology startup that has been established in less than 10 years but is valued at more than $1 billion and has not been listed on the stock market.

Six months ago, Phantom received a $9 million Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, 

CEO Brandon Millman noted that the company has been getting about 100,000 users on a weekly basis.

The company also said it is launching an iOS app and will release an Android native app in the coming months

Brandon Millman expressed an eagerness to move to open source but said it was difficult to prioritize.

He said that:

“Once it’s open-source, there’s this implicit expectation around responding to people who are leaving issues on the GitHub repo, people who are submitting pull requests, wanting to get features into the wallet,” he said. “We don’t want to start doing those things quite yet.”

The next goal for Phantom is to develop multi-chain compatibility and add support for another blockchain outside of the Solana ecosystem in its wallet.

Multi-chain will provide users with more investment opportunities.

Phantom Wallet CEO Ensures User Privacy Amidst Quests Feature Concerns

Pprivacy concerns and the ethical use of user data remain paramount. Recently, Brandon Millman, CEO and co-founder of the popular crypto wallet service Phantom, took to social media to address growing concerns amongst users regarding the company’s data privacy practices. Phantom has been at the forefront of providing DeFi and NFT solutions, and with user trust being a cornerstone of their service, Millman’s assurance comes at a critical time.

The now-deleted tweet from Millman was clear: Phantom “has never and will never sell or share user data with anyone.” He further clarified that the company has not grouped users’ public addresses to sell or share with external teams. The post was made in response to escalating user queries and concerns about how Phantom handles user data, specifically regarding its Quests feature, which is designed to incentivize user engagement.

Millman explained that Phantom employs a variety of techniques to prevent misuse of the Quests feature, such as stopping a Quest from being completed more than once per device. This approach is part of the company’s Sybil protection strategy to ensure that distributed app (dapp) partners are engaging with real users rather than bots or malicious actors attempting to exploit the system for tokens (“farmers”).

The conversation around these measures sparked debate on social media, with users like @Auph accusing Phantom of “selling features for money at the expense of your users.” Millman responded by reiterating Phantom’s commitment to not selling or sharing data and emphasized that their approach to Sybil protection is solely for their internal Quests feature.

A related query from user @Fr4ktal.sol questioned if data was shared with “dapp partners,” to which Millman replied, “We don’t share any data.” This aligns with Phantom’s stated policy of offering users the option to opt out of anonymous analytics entirely through their wallet settings.

The discourse also covered user concerns regarding funds deposited into a specific service using the Phantom wallet, highlighting the ongoing dilemma faced by users when transacting within the blockchain space. Brandon Millman’s engagement with these concerns reflects Phantom’s proactive stance on user privacy and the integrity of its services.

In light of these assurances from Phantom’s CEO, the crypto community continues to scrutinize wallet providers and their approach to user data. The conversation aligns with broader industry trends as companies like Phantom navigate the balance between innovative features and maintaining user trust.

Phantom remains a key player in the crypto wallet space, with a reputation for user-friendly services for DeFi and NFT transactions. As blockchain technology continues to mature, the importance of transparent and secure data practices becomes increasingly critical for companies operating within this domain.

With privacy and security at the forefront of users’ minds, Phantom’s clarity on their data handling practices is a step towards reinforcing trust within the community. It also highlights the ongoing dialogue between service providers and users in shaping the future of blockchain technology and its applications.

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