Why Phantom Is Launching Perps + Why Bit Digital Ditched BTC for ETH - Ep. 866

Unchained

In the first half of this dual episode, Phantom co-founder Brandon Millman joins Unchained to break down why his Solana-first wallet is launching perpetual swaps, and why it chose to integrate with Hyperliquid over any Solana-native option.

Then, Bit Digital’s Sam Tabar explains why the public company ditched its profitable Bitcoin mining business, went all-in on ETH, and what happened when he told Michael Saylor.

• FalconX

• Sam Tabar, Chief Executive Officer of Bit Digital, Inc

• Brandon Millman, CEO and co-founder of Phantom

Phantom

Unchained: Phantom Wallet Launches Direct Perpetual Trading With Hyperliquid

Phantom blog post: Introducing Phantom Perps

Dragonfly’s Austin Marrazza tweet

Bit Digital

The Block: Bit Digital swaps entire treasury into Ethereum, says it's now a top public ETH holder after a $173 million splurge

Treasury companies

• Unchained:

• These 4 Crypto Treasury Companies Are Primed for a Price Crash

• BitMine Crashes 39% After It Files to Raise $2 Billion for More ETH

Timestamps: Phantom

• 🎬 0:00 Intro

• ⚡ 1:36 Why Phantom is launching perps—and why now was the moment to do it

• 💥 6:08 How they landed on 40x leverage

• 💸 7:48 How Phantom plans to make money from its new trading product

• 🚫 8:50 Why U.S. users are left out (for now)

• 🔗 10:36 Why Hyperliquid won out over Solana-native DEXes

• ⚔️ 12:55 Whether wallets and dapps are headed for a showdown

• 🪪 17:22 Why Brandon believes wallets will be the new gateway to crypto

• 📱 18:45 How social features could redefine the wallet experience

• 🌅 22:45 What Brandon hopes Phantom becomes over the next five years

Timestamps: Bit Digital

• 💥 26:35 Why Bit Digital ditched Bitcoin for Ethereum—and how Gary Gensler played a role

• 💰 28:31 How they walked away from a profitable BTC mining business

• 🪙 32:58 Why Sam says there’s no better home for stablecoins than Ethereum

• 🗣️ 34:09 What came out of Sam’s surprising conversation with Michael Saylor about crypto treasuries

• 🤔 37:10 Whether ETH’s value accrual model needs a fundamental rethink

• 📈 42:21 How Bit Digital plans to ramp up its ETH accumulation

• 🧠 44:40 What their new AI venture is really aiming to do

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