Software review — Phantom
Phantom review: design as a security feature
Phantom is the best-designed crypto app on either store, and that is not a compliment about aesthetics. Its transaction simulation shows you what a signature will actually do to your balances before you approve — the single most useful defence against the way wallets really get drained.
- 9.3/10 Interface score, highest of any mobile wallet
- Simulated Every transaction previewed before signing
- 0.85% In-app swap fee
- 4 Chains: Solana, Ethereum, Base, Bitcoin
At a glance
The best-designed mobile crypto app on the market, with a genuinely useful scam-simulation layer.
Best for: Solana-first users and NFT collectors · Maker: Phantom Technologies
The feature that should be industry standard
Almost every serious crypto loss we have read about follows the same shape. The victim was asked to sign something. They did not understand precisely what it authorised. They signed it because signing things is what using these applications involves. Days or weeks later, a contract exercised the permission they granted and their tokens left.
The reason this works is that a signature request is abstract. A wallet shows you a hexadecimal blob, a contract address and a function name, and asks whether you approve. Nobody can read that. So people develop the only workable coping strategy — approving things that look routine — and attackers build requests that look routine.
Phantom simulates the transaction and tells you the outcome in plain terms: this signature will result in these balance changes. Instead of "approve interaction with contract 0x7a3f…", you get "this will allow all of your USDC to be moved". That is a completely different decision, and it is the single most valuable safety feature in any mainstream wallet. It is also, notably, absent from MetaMask and Trust Wallet, which between them account for the bulk of the drain incidents we see.
Specifications
| Maker | Phantom Technologies |
|---|---|
| Price | Free |
| Platforms | iOS, Android, browser extension |
| Custody | Non-custodial — keys generated and stored on device |
| Source code | Closed source |
| Asset support | Solana, Ethereum, Base, Bitcoin |
| Standout feature | Transaction simulation — shows balance changes before you sign |
| Staking | One-tap SOL staking with a validator picker that displays commission |
| Swap fee | Approximately 0.85% |
| Backup | BIP39 recovery phrase, portable to any compatible wallet |
| Last verified | September 2026 |
Why we score the interface 9.3
Design in crypto usually means a nicer gradient. Phantom's design is doing structural work, and it shows up in the specific places our testers made mistakes with other wallets.
Addresses are displayed in a way that supports actual verification rather than truncating into ambiguity. Network selection is explicit and consistently visible, which matters enormously now that Phantom spans four chains — sending a Solana asset to an Ethereum address is the single most common expensive error in multi-chain wallets. Fees are shown before confirmation rather than after. The transaction history is legible to a human being. And the whole app is calm: there is far less commercial surface competing for attention than in MetaMask or Ledger Live.
The staking flow deserves particular credit. Phantom's validator picker shows you the commission each validator charges, which is the number that determines what you actually receive from an advertised yield. Most wallets either pre-select a validator silently or bury the commission, and the result is that people believe the gross APY is the net APY. Showing it is a small honesty that costs Phantom nothing and helps every user.
The one thing simulation cannot do
Simulation tells you what a transaction will do. It cannot tell you whether you should want that. If you are convinced by a fake support agent to send funds to their address, Phantom will faithfully simulate a transfer of your money to a stranger and you will approve it, because that is what you intended. Simulation defeats deception about mechanism, not deception about people. Your recovery phrase still never goes anywhere.
The closed-source trade-off
Phantom is closed source, and this is the main thing holding its score down.
There is no evidence of any problem, the wallet is non-custodial, and the recovery phrase is a standard BIP39 phrase so you can leave at any time. But you cannot verify that keys are handled the way the company says, and you cannot verify that the simulation itself is honest — the feature we praise most highly is a feature we are taking on trust. For a working balance that is an acceptable trade. For savings it is one more reason the answer is a hardware wallet.
If open source is a requirement for you, the mobile option is BlueWallet for Bitcoin, and the desktop options on our desktop wallets page. You give up a great deal of polish; you gain the ability to check.
The balance sheet
What we like, and what we don't
What it does well
- Transaction simulation is the best practical anti-drain feature in any mainstream wallet — you see the balance impact before you approve
- The best interface of any mobile crypto wallet; genuinely hard to make a mistake in
- Validator picker for SOL staking actually shows commission rates, which almost no other wallet does clearly
- Multi-chain now covers Solana, Ethereum, Base and Bitcoin in one clean app
- Free to send, with only network fees, and Solana network fees are negligible
- Standard BIP39 recovery phrase, so you can move to another wallet whenever you want
- Strong NFT handling, which matters if that is part of what you hold
What we hold against it
- Closed source, so the key-handling and simulation claims cannot be independently verified
- Keys live on an internet-connected phone — the structural limit of any software wallet
- A 0.85% swap fee is real money on larger trades and is embedded in the quoted rate
- Fewer chains than Trust Wallet, so it will not cover an unusual portfolio
- Hardware wallet pairing is more limited than MetaMask's
- Solana-centric heritage still shows: the experience on other chains is good but not as refined
Using Phantom from New Zealand
There is nothing New Zealand-specific about the app itself, but two practical points apply to Kiwi users.
Funding. In-app purchase routes go through third-party providers, and the all-in cost is generally worse than buying on an exchange and withdrawing. The better pattern is to buy on a venue with published licences, then withdraw to the receiving address Phantom gives you — check the network carefully, because Phantom's four-chain support means you have four possible addresses. Our NZD funding guide covers the local rails now that Easy Crypto has closed and Kiwi-Coin has shut down.
Records. If you stake SOL, you will accumulate a large number of small reward receipts. Because those are likely income at market value on the day received under New Zealand's treatment of cryptoassets as property, and because a self-custody wallet is not a reporting entity under the CARF rules that took effect on 1 April 2026, nobody is producing that record for you. Set up tracking before you start staking, not eighteen months later. Our tax and CARF guide explains what Inland Revenue has and has not published. General information, not tax advice.
Who Phantom is for
Three groups, clearly.
Anyone who holds Solana. This is the best Solana wallet by a comfortable margin, and the staking implementation alone justifies it.
Anyone who interacts with smart contracts and wants a safety net. The simulation feature is worth more than any other single thing in this category. If you mint, claim, swap or connect to applications regularly, this is the wallet that will catch the request you would otherwise have approved.
Anyone nervous about doing this at all. Of every app we handed to testers, Phantom produced the fewest errors and the fewest questions. If you are helping a family member move off an exchange — which, given New Zealand's record with Cryptopia, Dasset and the rest, is a genuinely worthwhile thing to do — this is a good place to send them.
Who it is not for: people with holdings on chains it does not support, who want Trust Wallet; Bitcoin-only holders, who want BlueWallet; and anyone storing an amount that would hurt to lose, who wants a hardware wallet regardless of how good the app is.
From our testing notes
We deliberately signed a request granting an unlimited token allowance in three different wallets to see what each showed us. Two displayed a contract address and a function name. Phantom said, in effect, that this would let the contract move all of that token. Same transaction, same risk, completely different decision. If one feature from this entire site were made mandatory across the industry, it would be that one.
Phantom FAQ
Phantom — questions New Zealanders ask
Is Phantom wallet safe?
It is non-custodial with keys held on your device, and its transaction simulation is the strongest practical safety feature in any mainstream wallet — before you sign, Phantom shows you what will actually happen to your balances, which turns an abstract approval request into a concrete warning. The two limitations: it is closed source, so you are trusting the team rather than verifying code, and the keys live on an internet-connected phone. Excellent for a working balance; not where savings belong.
How do I withdraw crypto from Phantom wallet?
Choose the asset, tap send, and paste the destination address — then check the network matches. Phantom now covers Solana, Ethereum, Base and Bitcoin, and sending a Solana asset to an Ethereum address is the mistake that costs people money. Send a small test amount first for any new destination, confirm it arrives, then send the rest. If you are withdrawing to sell for New Zealand dollars, our cashing out guide covers the whole route.
What are Phantom fees?
Free to install and free to send — you pay only the network fee, which on Solana is negligible. Phantom takes roughly 0.85% on in-app swaps, which is marginally cheaper than MetaMask's 0.875% and more than doing the trade on an exchange. On small swaps it is not worth thinking about; on anything above a few thousand dollars, check the rate against a market price first. Our fees guide explains the layers.
How do I stake SOL in Phantom?
Open your SOL balance, choose stake, select a validator and confirm. Phantom's validator picker is the clearest implementation we have used — it actually shows you the commission each validator charges, which most wallets bury. Solana has an unbonding period, so staked SOL is not immediately sellable when you decide to exit. Rewards are likely taxable income on receipt in New Zealand; see our tax guide. General information, not tax advice.
Is Phantom only for Solana?
Not any more. Phantom started as a Solana wallet and has expanded to Ethereum, Base and Bitcoin, so it works as a general-purpose multi-chain wallet. Solana remains where it is strongest and most polished. If your holdings are mostly on chains Phantom does not cover, Trust Wallet supports far more networks — at the cost of a denser interface and no transaction simulation.
Next in this cluster