phantom

1/ Phantom is thriving in the self-custodial wallet race, competing with CEX giants like Coinbase & OKX. How did it grow 5x to reach 10M MAU in 2024 & what’s fueling its growth? Let’s dive in. 🏆

1/ Phantom is thriving in the self-custodial wallet race, competing with CEX giants like Coinbase & OKX. How did it grow 5x to reach 10M MAU in 2024 & what’s fueling its growth? Let’s dive in. 🏆

https://apiuminnovations.substack.com/p/phantom-part-2-user-adoption-and

2/ User Adoption 📈

Phantom grew 5x in 2024 thanks to:
- More chains, more users 🌐 (ETH, Polygon, BTC, Base, Sui added)
- Memecoin mania 🚀 drove traders to self-custody
- No native token: utility > speculation

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3/ Business Model 💰

Phantom makes money from swap fees, fiat onramps, cross-chain bridging, and staking. 

But its strategic move is in entering B2B via acquisitions:
- Bitski (NFT infra) → Monetizing marketplace & enterprise solutions
- Blowfish (Security) → B2B revenue via security tooling

4/ New Opportunities?

We see more revenue streams possible for Phantom:
- Premium features 🛠 (analytics, add-ons)
- Institutional wallet 🏛 (like MetaMask Institutional)
- Token launchpad 🚀 (potential but risky)

5/ User Retention 🔄

In Web3, users can easily switch wallets. Phantom must:
- Deliver best UX & security 🛡
- Consider gamification 🎮 (daily check-ins, points)
- Innovate constantly: no traditional moats in self-custody

6/ What’s Next? 👀

Phantom’s Series C funding hints at:
- Social discovery & P2P payments 🔗 (leveraging 3.8M usernames)
- Exploring Web3 social finance (Venmo for crypto?)

7/ Final Thoughts 🏁

Phantom is playing the long game—expanding across chains and entering B2B. Can it expand beyond being “just another wallet”? 🤔

In Part 3, we predict how the self-custodial wallet landscape will evolve & what that means for Phantom. Stay tuned! 👀