Key Personnel Move: Ventuals Trio Joins Phantom
Phantom, the leading crypto wallet, has announced the hiring of three core members from the Ventuals team—Alvin Hsia, Emily Hsia, and Aris Samad—to join its trading and data division. Ventuals was a decentralized perpetual contract trading platform built on Hyperliquid, a high-performance L1 network. The platform specialized in pre-IPO valuation trading of private companies and processed over $650 million in total volume before shutting down in mid-June this year. The team brings extensive experience in building open-market infrastructure on Hyperliquid.
Phantom’s Strategic Direction: Doubling Down on Derivatives
Brandon Millman, CEO of Phantom, noted that over the past year, Phantom has become the largest distribution partner in the Hyperliquid ecosystem. Open markets and perpetual contracts are now the wallet’s key growth areas. By bringing in the Ventuals founders, Phantom aims to accelerate its product development in native derivatives trading and related infrastructure. This signals that Phantom is evolving beyond a simple wallet interface toward a full-fledged trading layer deeply integrated with Hyperliquid.
Impact on Hyperliquid Ecosystem and Market Dynamics
Hyperliquid, an L1 optimized for on-chain order books, already ranks among the top DeFi platforms in perpetual and spot trading volume. Ventuals’ expertise in pre-IPO valuation trading and perpetuals will enable Phantom to roll out native trading features faster, reducing users’ reliance on third-party DEXs. For Hyperliquid, this move deepens its distribution network and could attract more traditional traders to on-chain derivatives through a familiar wallet interface. Industry analysts see this as a competitive signal in the wallet sector, where top players are shifting from asset custody to integrating core DeFi functions like trading, lending, and staking.
Outlook
With Ventuals on board, Phantom is expected to launch more sophisticated derivatives modules in the second half of 2026. Combined with its massive user base (over 10 million monthly active users), this integration could significantly boost Hyperliquid’s total value locked and trading activity. Moreover, Ventuals’ prior experience in pricing non-standard assets for pre-market trading may give Phantom a unique edge in offering alternative asset classes.