Although the crypto Market has been Rallying most altcoins have been lagging One of the few exceptions though is Phantom whose FTM coin pumped by almost 2x in just a few weeks while FTM has Fallen considerably since its local top The Catalyst that caused it to pump is Still in play this begs the question of Just how high FTM could go and when So Today we're going to explain what Phantom is bring you up to speed with The Project's most important updates Look at what it's planning next and Examine what it all means for FTM it's been over 2 years since we last Covered Phantom so it's safe to say that A refresher is in order here it goes Phantom is a layer one cryptocurrency That was founded by South Korean Computer scientist an bongi in 2018 an Stepped away from Phantom in 2019 Leaving it in the hands of the Phantom Foundation a nonprofit based in the Cayman Islands it is headed by Australian crypto developer Michael Kong With Andre cronier as president now for Context Andre is one of the best Developers in crypto he built Phantom's Core technology and multiple Blue Chip Defi protocols too Phantom raised Roughly $40 million across two icos in 2018 and its main net launched in late 2019 under the hood Phantom uses a Directed acyclic graph AKA dag that
Leverages a novel proof of stake Consensus mechanism called laccases That's capable of processing up to 2,000 Transactions per second of course the Tradeoff is Centralization according to the official Phantom Explorer Phantom has just 65 Validators fortunately Phantom recently Lowered the minimum stake to become a Validator to 50,000 FTM which is around $42,000 right now for reference it was 500,000 FTM before validator staking Rewards are 15% with a 7-Day lockup Delegation is also possible with a Minimum of one FTM staking rewards Depend on the lockup the minimum of 7 Days gives you 2% whereas the maximum of One year gives you just over 6% note That misbehaving validators are slashed 100% including delegated ft M now Besides staking FTM is used for Governance and to pay transaction fees Both functions are Innovative governance Allows you to vote on a sliding scale Rather than a yes or no meanwhile 70% of Transaction fees goes to validators 15% Goes to developers of popular daps 10% Goes to the treasury and 5% is burned FTM had an initial and maximum supply of 3.17 5 billion which was allocated as Follows roughly 42% to investors 7.5% to The team 12% to advisors 6% for the Community Treasury and just under 33% For staking rewards the original vesting
Schedule can be seen here now it was set To end late last year but not all FTM Supply is in circulation yet this is Because of a governance proposal that Was passed in the summer of 2022 to Reduce the Stak rewards and extend said Staking rewards to the summer of 2027 All other FTM allocations finished Festing back in 2020 now Phantom is Famous for being a defi chain though it Is technically a general purpose layer One Phantom's defi focus is part of why It was one of the hardest hit by the Collapse of terra's us stablecoin in May 2022 which was widely used in defi as You can see Phantom's TV L fell off a Cliff and never recovered similarly the Number of daily transactions on Phantom Has been flat over the last year or so Hovering at around 200,000 this is Consistent with data from dap radar Which suggests that daps on Phantom have Between 30 and 50,000 monthly active Users in total assuming minor overlap The caveat is that this is the case for Most other layer ones and even many Layer 2os in contrast to other crypto Projects Phantom continued building During the bare market and is in the Process of making a major change to its Entire ecosystem we'll come back to that Towards the end of the video Don't You Worry on that note if you're enjoying The video so far be sure to bang that
Like button to give it a boost And Subscribe to the channel so you don't Miss our next altcoin update note that We'll also leave a link to our previous Fantom update in the description if You're interested just remember that it Was over two years ago when yours truly Was less lived in than he is today time Can be cruel anyway it goes without Saying that a lot has happened since our Last Phantom update to refresh your Memory our update came shortly after Andre and another core member of Phantom Had stepped away from the project However Andre returned a few months Later something he had done before in a Subsequent interview Andre revealed that He never actually stopped working on Phantom he just wanted to step away from The public eye this is understandable Given that sentiment in the crypto Market wasn't the best at the time and Developers like Andre were being blamed For things they couldn't control some of You might recall that shortly after Andre departed Phantom specifically April 2022 he published a blog post About crypto regulation not surprisingly This post didn't go over well with the Crypto Community it seems Andre was on To something though because FTX Collapsed just a few months later now as I mentioned a few moments ago Phantom Was hit hard by the collapse of terra's
Us though its defi ecosystem was Reportedly already experiencing problems Prior to the collapse in short someone Had taken out a sizable loan Collateralized by FTM which had to be Liquidated causing FTM to tank the bad News for Phantom's defi ecosystem then Continued into the summer when the most Popular lending and borrowing protocol Passed a proposal to indefinitely Disable its implementation on Phantom at The time of shooting this is still the Case and it's not clear if or when RV Will be re-enabled after FTX collapsed In November 2022 however FTM was one of The few cryptos that rallied hard that's Because Andre revealed that the Phantom Foundation had over $340 million of Assets to fund development including 100 Million in stable coins giving Phantom Over 30 years of Runway FTM pumped again In December when Andre revealed that the Project would be doubling down on Building as many highquality daps as Possible this included making an Adjustment to ftms fee structure which Was subsequently changed to start Rewarding popular daps with a cut of Said fees in May 2023 in January 2023 Phantom had made a similar change which Was to give a cut of fees to the Community treasury it has since Collected over $1 million worth of FTM a Quarter of which has already been spent
On developer incentives odd that they do This given the Phantom foundation's Runway though in any case Phantom Continued delivering on its promises to Expand its DPP ecosystem in March 2023 With the release of a new web wallet That can be easily accessed using Popular browser extension wallets like Metamask the community also voted to Lower the minimum validator stake to 50 ,000 FTM then in April 2023 Phantom Partnered with a platform called d.f to Ensure that its daps are as secure as Possible funnily enough another defi Protocol called Stargate simultaneously Proposed to drisk from any usdc a form Of bridged usdc on Phantom provided by Any swap later renamed to multichain now If that name sounds familiar that's Because multichain was reportedly Exploited for over 1 .5 billion in July Of 2023 the thing is that it technically Wasn't an exploit Andre and Michael Explained in an interview that the CEO Of multichain was arrested by Chinese Authorities who then seized the funds Andre and Michael also revealed that Most of the crypto that had been Deposited from Phantom's side had come From users this has made it difficult For them to get involved in the case as The money technically isn't theirs but It seems that progress has since been Made at least in Singaporean courts
Regardless the takedown of multichain Hit Phantom hard as it damaged both the Project's reputation and its ecosystem FYI everyone had assumed that multichain Was decentralized including Andre hence Why Phantom had promoted it the Ecosystem damage almost caused Phantom's Top decks to shut down for L though Sentiment started improving in September 2023 that's because Google Cloud Announced that it would be adding Support for Phantom's dag along with Other major blockchains now this is Significant because it suggests that Institutions like Google do in fact see Phantom as a major layer one Unfortunately the sentiment soured again In October 2023 when wallets associated With the Phantom Foundation were hacked The Phantom Foundation itself only lost Around half a million dollar of crypto But one of its employees presumably one Of the higher ups reportedly lost $7 Million of crypto the wallets were Hacked because of an exploit of Google Chrome by the way and this just Underscores the importance of keeping Any crypto you're not actively trading On a hardware wallet and if you don't Have a hardware wallet you can get a Discount on the best ones on the coin Bureau deals page Link in Description now thankfully October and Ended on a positive note thanks to the
Announcement of the Phantom Sonic test Net for now all I'll say is that Sonic Is a major upgrade to Phantom as you'll See this is an understatement as it will Fundamentally change the direction of The project anyways in November 2023 Phantom made the Bittersweet Announcement that it had awarded a $1.7 Million bounty to a developer who had Discovered the vulnerability that caused Its wallets to be drained what's crazy Is that $170 million of crypto was at Risk remember Link in Description anyhow in December 2023 the Phantom Foundation announced the launch Of Sonic Labs which is apparently just a Developer program for Phantom Sonic I Say apparently because Michael revealed In an interview that Sonic had or was Looking to raise money from VCS meaning Sonic Labs could in fact be an entity Anywh who in March of this year FTM went Vertical after Michael announced what is Essentially the beginning of Sonic's Gradual launch which I will come to Later I promise FTM continued to pump in April after the Phantom Foundation Announced that Phantom would finally be Getting its first canonical stablecoin Usdc doe what was not so bullish however Was Andre's warning that the crypto Market could experience another Terror Level collapse alluding to Athena a Novel St coin protocol on ethereum
Obviously Andre is not the first one who Said this but it was taken more Seriously given his extensive experience And knowledge on a more positive note Andre also defended salana despite its Outage and performance issues as a fun Fact Andre believes that the salana Virtual machine is the most advanced of Any cryptocurrency however it seems that He only sees Avalanche as the only real Competitor to Phantom Food For Thought Another thing Andre did in April was Publish a blog post about how to make Safer meme coins Michael Then followed Up by announcing concrete plans by the Phantom Foundation to facilitate exactly That in May this foreshadows a mem coin Craze similar to that of salana but a Lot more well safe now all of Phantom's Announcements updates and developments Have had a predictable effect on ftms Price action it fell by 90% in early 2022 bottomed at 16 cents when FDX Collapsed and rallied by almost 4X one Month later it then drifted down by 70% To 18 cents before recovering in 20123 Then in February this year FTM started To go parabolic presumably because of Updates related to the Sonic upgrade Which I promise yes we'll get to Eventually additional Sonic updates took FTM on a tear totaling over 2x what's Interesting though is that FTM seems to Have rallied a bit before the actual
Sonic updates what's even more Interesting is that FTM has been Rallying despite its depressed onchain Activity this suggests that ftms primary Demand driver has been pure speculation Which is a double-edged sword Speculation tends to take crypto prices Higher very quickly but they often fall Just as fast case in point FTM fell by Almost 50% before the recent rally what Comes next is unclear but the weekly Chart appears to be painting a wonky Head and Shoulders pattern that looks Eerily similar to the topping pattern FTM saw in late 2021 notably this Pattern implies that there could be one More leg higher this would not be Surprising considering that the first Governance vote related to the Sonic Upgrade is set to include on the 25th of May so it may have already happened Depending on when you see this video Given that FM's price action has been Driven by everything Sonic related this Is an easy enough Catalyst to spot and If you want to try your hand trading This Catalyst then maximize your profits With the coin Bureau deals page it's got Trading fee discounts of up to 60% and Sign up bonuses of up to $60,000 on the Best crypto exchanges these deals are Only available for our viewers and and For a limited time only so take Advantage of them ASAP by using the link
In the description now zooming out on The weekly chart suggests that FTM could Rally as high as $160 in the short to Medium term where it will likely stall Out due to resistance AKA bag holders From the previous bull market after that It's anyone's guess but FTM has some Solid pump mentals so to speak it has a Low price tag and a market cap that Isn't so large as to prohibit an epic Pump the fact that FTM supply has Already vested to investors and the team Suggests there will be minimal cell Pressure from their side particularly When you factor in the Phantom Foundation's apparently enormous Runway To put things into perspective FTM Supply has increased by around 250 Million since we last covered the Project assuming an average price of Around 50 this means up to $125 million Worth of sell pressure which sounds like A lot but works out to just $2.5 million Per month from our perspective the only Thing that FTM is missing is a narrative That retail investors can understand and More retail accessibility specifically FTM is not currently listed on coinbase Though it's possible this could change If regulations in the US change or when Phantom launches the Sonic token on that Note the launch of the Sonic token is What makes it so hard to reject ftms Price out further than a few months the
Governance proposal that's currently in Play would make it possible to swap FTM One: one for the S token whose Tokenomics are unknown at the time of Shooting and which will likely be Volatile ftms future potential Ultimately depends on what happens with Sonic which is the current focus of Phantom's road mapap I'll start by Saying that some of the details related To Sonic and the S token are still up in The air and could change by the time you See this video that said here is what we Know so far per the first blogpost about Sonic in October last year Sonic is an Upgrade to Phantom's dag platform Currently called Opera Sonic makes three Changes to Opera it introduces an Improved version of the evm called the Fvm reduces storage requirements for Validators and optimizes the Lac assis Consensus the comparison between Sonic And Opera can be seen here you'll notice It's quite technical the key difference Is that Sonic will be able to process 2,000 transactions per second with 1 Second finality without generating as Much data this will improve Phantom's Overall decentralization over time the Key Innovation at least in our opinion Is the fvm as some of you will know the Evm is inherently limited to around 400 Trans transactions per second or so the Fvm makes it possible to process 2,000
Transactions per second while being Fully compatible with evm tools and Technologies in other words Sonic is Just an upgrade to Phantom at least at First glance upon closer inspection However Sonic will include a whole Series of other changes and features Including Bridges simplified staking Liquid staking parallelized processing Offchain sharding and yes the launch of A new token called s all of these Changes will be voted on by FTM holders And I'll remind you that they're Currently voting for The onetoone Token Swap between FTM and S details about the Swap and the S token can be found in the Original governance proposal on Phantoms Forum which we'll link to in the Description what's fascinating is that The governance proposal not only refers To the Sonic Network as an entirely new Chain I.E not a part of phantom but Quote a layer one platform that connects To ethereum Via a bespoke layer 2 Bridge Allowing Sonic to tap into vast amounts Of liquidity users and protocols put Simply it sounds like the Sonic network Will be a de facto ethereum layer to but We'll come back to that in a second the Governance proposal notes that if Approved FTM will be swappable for S Initially this will be possible in both Directions and initially s will have the Same tokenomics as FTM the governance
Proposal also contains three additional Proposals that will be tabled an airdrop Of the S token the launch of a growth Program for Sonic Network and a Validator Rewards program that will Effectively incentivize validators from Phantom to switch to securing the Sonic Network instead when you combine this With the fact that it will only be Possible to swap FTM 4S in the future it Makes it crystal clear that Phantom is Looking to phase out FTM entirely and Switch to Sonic network not only that But it suggests that Phantom is seeking To become a part of ethereum's ecosystem Additional evidence for this can be Found in interviews with Michael and Andre in an interview in late March Michael practically confirmed that Sonic Network will be an ethereum layer too he Also revealed that the token economics For S will be different from those for FTM hence the initially in the Governance proposal he explained that The reason why Phantom is making all These changes is to tap into the Liquidity and user base of ethereum he Also noted that large FTM holders were The ones who pushed for this change and That Sonic network is starting fresh With VC Capital to quote correct the Mistakes of the past what was eye Openening to us was the fact that Phantom seems to be get getting closer
To the likes of circle and pith Network Both of whom are heavily backed by Wall Street in fact it wouldn't be farfetched To say that Sonic Network may be trying To position itself as not only an Ethereum layer too but a salana killer As well we suspect this because Andre Revealed in an interview last December That Phantom plans to Leverage The svm In some way and you'll remember that he Believes that the svm is the best Virtual machine out there for those Unaware virtual machines are what make It possible to have Smart contracts What's annoying is that Michael revealed In an interview that the Phantom Foundation has an internal road map for The Sonic Network and the S token in a Presentation in October last year he Revealed some parts of this road map Disclosing that Phantom will start Looking into horizontal scaling early Next year the problem is that it's not Entirely clear if this road map still Applies given all the constant changes So this brings me to the challenges that Phantom faces the first challenge is the Elephant in the room and that's the Sonic upgrade while Sonic was initially Pitched as an upgrade to Phantom it has Now become a separate cryptocurrency Meanwhile Phantom itself will gradually Be wound down and disappear this is all Well and good but the communication
About these plans has not been we Suspect this lack of clarity and Consistency isn't coming from the Phantom Foundation but from the FTM Holders and VCS that Michael admitted Were driving all of these changes They're probably wondering how to Maximize their profits creating a brand New blockchain that's Tethered to Ethereum's ecosystem makes sense as it Will increase the likelihood that Sonic Network will get a cut of ethereum's Liquidity and adoption per Michael's Admission but the fact that Phantom is Also considering the svm suggests this Is likewise up in the air the good news Is that these changes could result in The S token being listed on the likes of Coinbase as it allows Phantom to restart From a sort of blank slate the bad news Is that this could alienate the Phantom Community and that could mean that Phantom will also need to restart its Adoption from Scratch this ties in to Phantom's Second Challenge and that's competition there Are lots of layer twos out there and There will be more once the dust settles Around Sonic it's not clear how Sonic Will Stand Out particularly when the VCS Phantom is working with likely have even Larger allocations to its competitors The competition will get even more Intense if Phantom or rather Sonic
Decides to go head-to-head with the Likes of salana there are lots of salana Killers out there too and they are Somehow even more well capitalized than The Phantom Foundation claims to be some Of them like say also seem to be faster And this relates to Phantom's third Challenge and that's adoption Phantom's Aforementioned onchain metrics don't Look promising and they haven't been Improving even though most other layer Ones aren't looking too hot either most Of them still have seen Improvement in Terms of things like defi tvl this Underscores what we pointed out earlier And that's that Phantom seems to be Relying on pure speculation to get by Until the Sonic upgrade or rather launch So far that's been working but it hasn't Translated into any onchain activity It's almost as if all the users left for Other chains for what it's worth we Believe that Phantom will overcome these Challenges if it manages to improve its Communication and information Surrounding the Sonic Network this Includes clarifying what Niche or Narrative it falls into is it an Ethereum layer too or is it a salana Killer now this is extremely important At the end of the day it's the strength Of a narrative that causes a crypto Project to go up by 100x as Andre has Stressed in his interviews Phantom isn't
All about Defi and Sonic Network Technically isn't a layer two however That won't stop users and investors from Assigning narratives to these cryptos Once it becomes clear what narrative Sonic Network falls into the Phantom Foundation should lean into it in our View this is the only way to maximize The adoption and growth of Phantom's Current and future ecosystems the best Part of all is that it will ensure FTM Or rather s will see impressive price Action as a result and note that you can Learn more about the biggest crypto Narratives of this bull market using the Link in the Description okay how about that folks we Got to the end of the video without me Making some lame joke about ghosts I Must be losing my touch okay that's all For today so if you found this video Informative be sure to slap that like Button to let us know if you want to Stay informed about crypto projects then Subscribe to the channel and ping that Notification Bell if you want to inform Others about Phantom then be sure to Share this video with them and as always Thank you so much for watching and I'll See you in the next one this is Guy Signing off [Music]
