Phantom acquires Blowfish to boost wallet security

Phantom, the non-custodial crypto wallet for decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens on Solana, has announced its acquisition of web3 security platform Blowfish.

The Solana (SOL) based cryptocurrency wallet disclosed the transaction on Nov. 19, noting in a blog post that the move aims to bolster security for wallet users. Blowfish’s team, known for protecting users and assets by alerting against scams and fraud, will join Phantom.

According to Phantom, acquiring Blowfish is a key step in combating harmful decentralized applications and bugs. The wallet has recently faced downtime and a buggy update, which affected user experience and safety.

Commenting on Blowfish’s role in enhancing user security, Phantom chief executive officer Brandon Millman stated:

“With their help, we’re going to offer the most secure and user-friendly platform to access, and interact with, apps, tokens, and collectibles across all devices.”

Blowfish has reportedly prevented over 2.8 million scams and scanned more than 1.3 billion transactions, securing assets worth over $18 billion. This capability will now be integrated into Phantom, with Blowfish’s current service being sunset.

In June this year, a fake Phantom wallet pushed on the Apple App Store saw unsuspecting users lose assets.

On Nov. 13, a buggy update caused some iOS users to be locked out of their accounts. The glitch introduced a bug that reset wallets and added a prompt for users to log in again with their recovery phrases. Several users reported losing funds, including one who claimed a $600,000 loss.

It’s important to note that Phantom is a non-custodial wallet and does not access user funds or store recovery phrases.

Separately, digital asset custody and wallet infrastructure platform Fireblocks recently launched a non-custodial wallet-as-a-service solution aimed at advancing security for user assets across the industry.