Fireblocks Adds Phantom (FTM) Support

The path to mass adoption for crypto projects is through integration into mainstream financial networks. The Fantom Foundation signaled an important step in this direction with its recent announcement that digital asset custody service Fireblocks has added support for FTM, the Fantom network token.

Fantom is an open source smart contract platform for digital assets and decentralized applications (dApps) with a large developer community and a thriving ecosystem. Numerous projects have turned to Fantom to take advantage of the network’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility, ultra-fast 1-second transaction accuracy, and near-zero transaction fees.

Now, more than 500 banks, hedge funds, lending desks, exchanges and OTC brokerages that make up Fireblocks’ global client base will have access to the FTM token (both Fantom Opera and ERC-20 versions). Using Fireblocks’ innovative MPC-based wallet infrastructure and payment network, these financial institutions can store, stake and securely transfer their tokens without using hardware wallets or potentially risky sub-custodial services.

Part of Fantom’s success is based on the cross-chain experience the network offers. While most of the next generation blockchain platforms like Fantom promote themselves as “Ethereum killers”, Fantom has always called itself “Ethereum vice”. This is reflected in Fantom’s EVM compatibility (mentioned above) and the large number of bridges on the network that facilitate exchanges between ETH and FTM. At Fantom, users and developers can use popular tools like Metamask, FTMscan (developed by the team behind EtherScan) and Hardhat. All this means that migrating dApps from Ethereum to Fantom is quick and easy.

Phantom’s approach has attracted developers and a large community. This year has seen phenomenal growth: since May 1, 2021, the number of unique wallet addresses in the Fantom network has increased from 77,993 to 516,332. This corresponds to an increase of more than 660%. On the other hand, the total key value (TVL) increased from $30.7 million to $1.3 billion. In terms of usage, daily transactions surpassed the number of transactions on the Ethereum network with 1.29 million on September 6, 2021. Regardless of traffic, Phantom network performance has remained consistently fast with low fees at all times.

In addition to Fireblocks, Fantom has inked numerous partnerships and integrated with major projects in the crypto asset industry. For example, Chainlink’s oracle services recently went live on the Fantom mainnet, and in late August, Coinbase added support for FTM in its mobile wallet.

The Phantom Foundation recently announced an incentive program with more than $400 million in cash to continue projects being built on the network. Also, Fantom is preparing to launch Artion.io, an NFT platform and marketplace that promises 0% commission, a modern user interface and the usual high performance that Fantom users are used to. Finally, Keynote, the group that organizes the North American Bitcoin Conference, has planned to hold a large Phantom Developer Conference in Abu Dhabi from October 25-29, 2021.