Phantom Wallet Review

Phantom Wallet Review: Self-Custody, Swap Fees, Security and Who It Suits

In our view, Phantom is one of the easiest self-custody wallets for people who live on Solana and want to trade from their phone. This wallet includes built-in swaps, a cash balance, and prediction markets. We think it is a weaker fit if you want open-source wallet code, extensive chain coverage beyond its supported list, or a straightforward storage wallet without prominently featured trading capabilities.

What Phantom is

Phantom is a self-custody wallet: its terms say the wallet lets you hold your own digital assets and keep control of your private keys. It is made by Phantom Technologies, Inc. The company started in January 2021, when a group of engineers, designers and former founders set out to make crypto easier to use. In January 2025 it raised $150M in a Series C round, at a valuation of $3B. Phantom says it is used by a community of more than 20 million people.

The Phantom wallet is available as a mobile app for both iOS and Android, and as a browser extension compatible with Chrome, Brave, and Edge. The terms describe it as a self-custody wallet application and browser extension.

Supported networks

Phantom supports 9 networks: Solana, Ethereum, Robinhood Chain, Arc, HyperEVM, Bitcoin, Base, Polygon and BNB Chain. Its help center lists Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, Unichain and Linea as not supported, and tokens sent on those networks have to be recovered with another wallet. In our view the list covers the chains most traders use, but if you hold assets on many smaller networks, a broader multi-chain wallet will save you trouble.

Custody, backup and recovery

A Phantom wallet can be secured with a Secret Recovery Phrase, private keys, and a PIN, or created with a Google or Apple account, allowing sign-in on other devices with the same account. Phantom says it cannot recover these credentials for you. If the PIN is entered incorrectly seven times, the device's encrypted backup is erased. Access can then only be regained through another signed-in device or by using your exported recovery phrase.

We would export the recovery phrase on day one and store it offline, even if you sign in with Google or Apple, because it is the one backup that does not depend on another company's account.

Security and privacy

Phantom identifies malicious transactions through integrated scam detection, provides transparency on what you are signing, allows the burning of spam NFTs, and blocks known phishing sites with an open-source blocklist. Its bug bounty offers up to $50,000 for vulnerabilities that might cause a user fund loss. Phantom states its code has been audited by external security firms, with links to the reports provided.

Only the phishing blocklist is described as open source; we found no statement that the wallet code itself is public. For a wallet we consider this a minus, because outside reviewers cannot check every release. Phantom says it never tracks personally identifiable information or asset balances.

If you want more protection, you can connect a Ledger and keep your keys on the hardware device while using Phantom as the interface. For larger balances we think that is the better setup.

Swaps and fees

Phantom charges a fee of 0.85% on most swaps. Cross-chain swaps run through bridge providers such as LI.FI, Relay, deBridge and Garden, and Phantom's quote engine picks the lowest-priced route by default. In our view the fee is easy to miss inside a one-tap swap, so on larger trades we would compare the quote with an exchange first.

Sending crypto costs only the network fee, and Phantom says it does not receive these fees. You need a little of each network's native token to pay them, although some swaps are gasless.

Cash account and card

Phantom's Cash account features CASH, a USD-pegged stablecoin on Solana. Adding funds costs 1.75% with a debit card, 3.50% with a credit card, and 0.30% via direct deposit from a US bank account, while standard ACH withdrawals to a bank have no fees.

A virtual prepaid Visa debit card, issued by Lead Bank, lets you spend that balance in the US, except in New York. We think the Cash account makes Phantom feel more like a payments app, which is handy, but it also means a part of your money sits in a stablecoin rather than in a coin you chose.

Perps, predictions and staking

Perpetual futures use isolated margin with a minimum order of 10.25 USDC, and they are not available in the US, the UK or jurisdictions sanctioned by the US. Leverage can wipe out the margin on a position quickly, so in our view perps only suit people who already understand them.

Prediction markets are available in two formats: within the US through Kalshi, and elsewhere as World prediction markets, the latter not being offered in the US, the UK, or Germany.

You can stake SOL natively from at least 1 SOL in the browser extension, or use liquid staking. We would treat staking rewards as variable and keep an eye on the validator you choose.

Using Phantom in the US

Phantom serves US users, and its feature list shows Kalshi prediction markets in the US, except in Michigan, Nevada and Washington. Perps, World prediction markets and tokenized stocks are not offered in the US, and New York residents cannot add cash through Stripe or use the debit card. In our view the core wallet works the same for US users; only the trading extras differ by state.

Day-to-day use

In our view, Phantom's biggest strength is how little it asks of a new user: you can create a wallet, fund the Cash balance and buy a token in a few taps, and the app explains fees and price impact before you confirm. For people coming from a trading app, that makes the jump to self-custody much smaller.

The same design also pushes trading to the front, with trending tokens, perps and predictions a tap away from your savings. We would keep long-term holdings in a separate account or on a Ledger, so a quick trade never touches the coins you plan to keep. We would also switch off the networks you do not use in the settings, which keeps the token list short and makes spam tokens easier to spot.

Support

Support runs through a chatbot and tickets, with follow-up by email, and Phantom says it has no support phone number or public email address. That last point matters: anyone who calls you claiming to be Phantom support is a scammer, and we would never share a recovery phrase with anyone.

Who should look elsewhere

If you want a wallet for many chains with a classic desktop app, we think the options in our Exodus review and Trust Wallet review are a better start. If you mostly use Ethereum apps, we think our MetaMask review covers the most common alternative, and Exodus Wallet vs MetaMask compares it with a desktop wallet. For long-term storage we would add a hardware wallet such as the one in our Ledger Nano X review. All reviewed wallets are on our wallets overview.

Our verdict

In our view, Phantom is a polished wallet for Solana users who want trading, payments and predictions in one app. The closed wallet code, the swap fee and the growing list of trading extras are the points we would weigh, and we would pair it with a hardware wallet for savings.