Phantom Hires Ventuals Founders, Doubling Down on Perpetuals Push

• Phantom hired Ventuals co-founders Alvin Hsia and Emily Hsia, plus engineer Aris Samad, folding them into its trading and data teams.
• Ventuals ran perpetual futures on private-company valuations, including OpenAI and Anthropic, logging more than US$650 million (AU$943 million) in lifetime volume before winding down in June.
• The acqui-hire advances Phantom’s bid to become the largest distribution partner in the Hyperliquid ecosystem as wallets move deeper into derivatives.

Phantom has absorbed the founding team of Ventuals, a shuttered Hyperliquid-based derivatives venue, in a talent deal that hands the wallet hands-on expertise in perpetual futures at the moment it is racing to turn its app into a trading hub.

The company confirmed that Ventuals co-founders Alvin Hsia and Emily Hsia, along with engineer Aris Samad, have joined its trading and data teams. The trio previously held roles at Airbnb, Brex, and Paradigm before building Ventuals into one of the more sophisticated products running on Hyperliquid.

Phantom characterised the move as a hire of the people rather than a purchase of the product. Ventuals wound down its own platform earlier in June, closing a venue that had let traders take leveraged positions on the valuations of still-private companies.

Read more: More Than Half of Australia’s Business Leaders Now Hold Crypto Assets 

What Ventuals Built

Ventuals operated perpetual futures markets tied to private, pre-IPO company valuations, with flagship contracts tracking artificial-intelligence firms OpenAI and Anthropic. Perpetual futures let traders speculate on price movements with leverage and no expiry date, and Ventuals extended that structure to assets that do not trade on any public exchange.

The platform recorded more than US$650 million (AU$943 million) in lifetime trading volume before its founders opted to shut it down and move to Phantom. 

“Open markets have become a major focus for us. We’ve gone deep on perps, and we intend to go deeper,” Brandon Millman, Phantom’s chief executive, stated.

Millman added that “open networks will beat closed systems because builders, liquidity, and people can connect without permission,” framing the expansion as a bet on onchain infrastructure.

Related: Saylor Teases Another Bitcoin Buy as Strategy’s Paper Losses Top US$13 Billion

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