Phantom doubles down on perpetual futures with hire of Hyperliquid market builders
CoinDesk 2026-06-30 21:00:19
Context: Phantom, a crypto wallet, is doubling down on perpetual futures by hiring the team behind Ventuals, a project that recently shut down OpenAI and Anthropic perpetual futures on Hyperliquid. The hiring aims to boost Phantom's plans to expand into trading platforms, as wallets increasingly evolve into full-service financial apps. This move comes as perpetual futures have become one of crypto's fastest-growing products, expanding beyond digital assets into traditional markets.
Key Facts
- Phantom hired Alvin Hsia, Emily Hsia, and Aris Samad, the creators of Ventuals, a project that shut down its OpenAI and Anthropic perpetual futures markets earlier in the week, to join Phantom's trading and data teams.
- The trio's project, Ventuals, was one of Hyperliquid's highest-profile private-company trading projects, and its shutdown was announced earlier this month as it joined another project within the Hyperliquid ecosystem.
- Perpetual futures have evolved from a crypto-native innovation into one of the industry's most important products, allowing investors to speculate on future price movements without an expiration date on the contract.
- Phantom CEO Brandon Millman stated that the company plans to "go deeper" on perpetuals and open markets, with the hiring of the Ventuals team aimed at accelerating its efforts to build trading products around the ecosystem.
- Phantom has become the largest distribution partner in the Hyperliquid ecosystem and aims to deepen its focus on perpetual futures, with Millman describing Hyperliquid as "one of the best examples anywhere of what open markets make possible".