Phantom Wallet Launches Mobile Version to Bring Solana to Smartphones

Swapping NFTs and “apeing” into DeFi projects is hard without a mobile-optimized platform.

November 9, 2021 04:25 pm

Source: Solana.News

key takeaways

Phantom recently hit a million users on its desktop wallet
Phantom Wallet is joining SolFlare in expanding into the mobile wallet space

Breakpoint 2021, Lisbon, Portugal — Phantom, which recently hit a million users on its desktop wallet, announced a mobile version of its Solana wallet at the Breakpoint conference in Lisbon.

Of course, it’s been possible to trade tokens on mobile for quite some time. Nearly every exchange has a mobile app, but trading doesn’t mean custody and the burgeoning market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) requires custodial wallets like MetaMask.

Phantom has worked hard to expand its custodial wallet on desktop, as more users want the custodial browser experience which MetaMask has pioneered.

Indeed, for the most part, DeFi is a PC-only affair. The wallets and Web3 protocols used for DeFi activities might in theory work on mobile but it’s a messy affair. Swapping SOL and SPL tokens can be tough on a website designed for desktop but being rendered on mobile.

However, with the round-the-clock nature of crypto, seems a natural choice, especially considering MetaMask’s biggest jump in users came as it launched its mobile app.

“We’re expanding as quickly as we can to meet the new inflow of demand for applications built on Solana. With this launch, we’re giving existing and new users the opportunity to use a solid crypto wallet on-the-go,” said Brandon Millman co-founder and CEO of Phantom in a statement.

“This means they can mint NFTs, stake tokens, and more while not being tied to their computers, which carries considerable weight considering how fast the Solana ecosystem currently moves.”

Phantom joins SolFlare, one of the first Solana-native wallets, in a push for bringing Solana to mobile wallets. SolFare is no stranger to the ecosystem, currently staking 22% of the entire supply of SOL.

For its part Phantom said it’s blockchain agnostic and it believes in the “multi-chain future”, creating wallet apps aligned with market demand.

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Why Solana Mobile Should 100x Their Phone Production

Solana Mobile is a highly ambitious foray into the mobile consumer hardware market, seeking to open up a crypto-native distribution channel for mobile-first applications. The market for Solana Mobile devices has demonstrated a phenomenon whereby external market actors (e.g. Solana-native projects) continuously underwrite subsidies to Mobile consumers. The value of these subsidies, coming in the form of airdrops, trial programs, and exclusive NFT mints, have consistently covered the cost of the phone and generated positive returns for consumers. Given this trend in subsidies, the unit economics in the market for Mobile devices, and the initial growth rate and trajectory of sales, it should be expected that Solana mobile can clear 1M to 10M units over the coming years. As more devices circulate amongst users, Solana Mobile presents a promising venue for the emergence of killer-applications uniquely enabled by this mobile-first, crypto-native distribution channel.

by Luke Leasure