Crypto wallet Phantom has announced the hiring of Alvin Hsia, Emily Hsia and Aris Samad, the creators of Ventuals, the project that recently shut down OpenAI and Anthropic perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid. According to reports from Phantom, the trio will join the company's trading and data teams as part of a broader push into trading services. The hiring represents Phantom's strategic move to deepen its focus on perpetual futures and open markets as wallets increasingly evolve into comprehensive trading platforms. The three developers previously worked at companies including Airbnb, Brex and Paradigm before building Ventuals.
As reported by Phantom CEO Brandon Millman, the company has become the largest distribution partner in the Hyperliquid ecosystem and plans to deepen its focus on perpetual futures. Millman described open markets as a major focus area, stating that Phantom has gone deep on perps and intends to go deeper. The CEO highlighted Hyperliquid as one of the best examples of what open markets make possible, citing its global liquidity and transparent onchain infrastructure as key advantages. The platform has grown to more than $1 billion in annualized trading volume, demonstrating the significant scale of open market adoption within the wallet ecosystem. According to the latest reports, Phantom has added $37 billion in Hyperliquid perpetual volume to its trading capabilities.
According to the report, perpetual futures have evolved from a crypto-native innovation into one of the industry's most important products. These derivatives allow investors to speculate on future price movements without expiration dates, enabling around-the-clock trading with high liquidity. The products have expanded beyond digital assets into traditional markets, with prediction market operator Kalshi launching its own perpetual futures business last month after regulatory approval. The race is spreading beyond crypto as exchanges bet that always-on derivatives will become a larger part of financial markets. Perpetual futures allow traders to take positions on price movements without a contract expiry date, unlike traditional futures, making them one of the most used derivative products in crypto markets.
As reported by Phantom, the Ventuals team announced earlier this month that 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. The project's shutdown of OpenAI and Anthropic perpetual futures markets earlier this week marked the end of one of Hyperliquid's highest-profile private-company trading projects. The Ventuals platform offered perpetual futures tied to private company valuations through Hyperliquid's HIP-3 infrastructure. The hiring of this experienced team is expected to help Phantom accelerate its efforts to build trading products around the Hyperliquid ecosystem and expand beyond token storage and swaps into a comprehensive trading platform built around onchain markets.
Financial terms for the hiring were not disclosed, and Phantom described the move as the Ventuals team joining the company rather than an acquisition of the platform. The announcement reflects Phantom's broader effort to expand beyond token storage and swaps into a trading platform built around onchain markets. The company plans to use the Ventuals team's experience to accelerate its trading infrastructure and data capabilities, with intentions to continue investing in Hyperliquid and products that give users access to global liquidity directly through the wallet. The move brings one of Hyperliquid's closely watched private-company market experiments into Phantom's growing trading business as the company continues adding trading-focused features to its core wallet business.
