Phantom Hires Ventuals Creators Alvin Hsia, Emily Hsia, Aris Samad For Perpetual Futures Push

Crypto wallet Phantom said Tuesday that it hired Alvin Hsia, Emily Hsia and Aris Samad, the creators of Ventuals, to join Phantom’s trading and data teams as Phantom pushes further into perpetual futures.

“Phantom doubles down on perpetual futures with hire of Hyperliquid market builders The crypto wallet is doubling down on perpetual futures after hiring the builders behind one of Hyperliquid's highest-profile market experiments”

@coindesk

CoinDesk reported that the Ventuals team previously built a perpetual futures platform on Hyperliquid that shut down its OpenAI and Anthropic perpetual futures markets earlier this week.

@coindesk

CoinDesk also said the move follows Ventuals announcing earlier this month it was winding down and joining another project within the Hyperliquid ecosystem, ending one of the exchange’s most prominent experiments in trading private-company valuations onchain.

Crypto Briefing added that Phantom described the change as the Ventuals team joining the company rather than an acquisition of the platform, and said the three developers previously worked at companies including Airbnb, Brex and Paradigm.

Phantom CEO Brandon Millman framed the hiring as part of a broader effort to deepen its focus on perpetual futures, writing, "We've gone deep on perps, and we intend to go deeper."

Millman also described Hyperliquid as "one of the best examples anywhere of what open markets make possible," pointing to its global liquidity and transparent onchain infrastructure.

Crypto Briefing

Crypto Briefing said Phantom became Hyperliquid’s largest distribution partner over the past year as perpetual futures and other open market products became a larger part of its wallet.

CoinDesk said Phantom’s hires are intended to help accelerate efforts to build trading products around the Hyperliquid ecosystem, with Phantom saying it has become the largest distribution partner in that ecosystem.

Crypto Briefing said Phantom hired the Ventuals team as the wallet expands its trading products into a full on-chain trading suite, with Ventuals founders Alvin Hsia, Emily Hsia and Aris Samad joining Phantom’s trading and data teams this week.

“Phantom hires Ventuals team to expand Hyperliquid trading The wallet giant absorbs the team behind Hyperliquid's private-market perps platform as it builds out a full on-chain trading suite Phantom has hired the team behind Ventuals, a perpetual futures trading platform built on Hyperliquid, as the crypto wallet expands its trading products”

Crypto Briefing

The same source said Ventuals offered perpetual futures tied to private company valuations through Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 infrastructure, and that Phantom plans to use the team’s experience to accelerate its trading infrastructure and data capabilities.

CoinDesk reported that Phantom has steadily expanded beyond asset storage into swaps, staking and derivatives as wallets increasingly compete to become full-service financial apps rather than simple interfaces for holding tokens.

CoinDesk also said Phantom plans to deepen its focus on perpetual futures and continue investing in Hyperliquid and products that give users access to global liquidity directly through the wallet.