Software wallet and browser extension Phantom has raised $109 million in Series B funding to continue expanding its cross-platform capabilities beyond Solana.
The funding round was led by Paradigm, an investment firm specializing in cryptocurrencies and Web3 companies. Other VC firms that have supported Phantom in previous funding deals include Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Capital and Variant Fund.
According to Phantom, the funding will help improve the technical capabilities of the wallet, such as better app discovery, as well as allow the company to hire additional employees.
In addition to the funding round, Phantom also announced on Monday that its mobile app is now available for iOS devices.
Phantom currently boasts over 2 million monthly active users, doubling the number of users in less than three months. Much of this growth is due to the adoption of the Solana ecosystem, especially non-fungible tokens or NFTs. Phantom is backing Solanart, a Solana-based NFT marketplace currently ranked eighth in terms of trading volume, according to DappRadar.
1,000,000 active users just in time for @SolanaConf!!pic.twitter.com/d7Pc2j9tA2 — Phantom (@phantom) November 6, 2021
While NFT trading volumes have weakened in recent months amid a broad lull in the cryptocurrency markets, Phantom co-founder and CEO Brandon Millman told Cointelegraph that overall software wallet adoption is “still very strong” and that “the NFT ecosystem has played an important role. huge role.” He added that “although the market has fallen a bit, some NFT collections have indeed retained their value and even grown.”
Related: Got crypto? Here are 3 software wallets for storing, staking and exchanging
Phantom has also been optimized to support the growing world of decentralized finance (DeFi), which is another market segment that has cooled off significantly in recent months. As measured by Total Value Locked, or TVL, the decentralized finance industry has lost over 30% from its peak in the fourth quarter, according to DeFi Llama.
