Crypto wallet Phantom crashes big time! During the AirDrop period, prices went haywire, sparking a wave of users seeking compensation

Phantom wallet experienced a malfunction during the airdrop period, causing errors in price and balance displays. Although the assets were safe, it led to trading losses and a crisis of trust.

Price and balance display anomalies during the airdrop period

On Monday evening, the popular Solana ecosystem wallet Phantom suddenly suffered a service outage, causing multiple token prices and account balances on the platform to display abnormally. The malfunction occurred during a widely anticipated airdrop campaign, and with a surge in transaction demand, the issue quickly escalated.

The official statement said the anomaly primarily affected front-end data updates, preventing users from viewing the correct asset figures in real time, and even resulting in displays such as sharp price drops or assets showing as zero. While Phantom emphasized that “users’ asset safety was not affected,” the incorrect information had already materially interfered with market behavior.

Users couldn’t trade, causing losses; the community demands full compensation

During the outage, multiple users reported that they were unable to sell tokens smoothly, missing opportunities from price fluctuations and even seeing paper losses. Some users said on social platforms that within just 1.5 hours they lost about $450, roughly NT$14k, sparking panic that spread.

Image source: X/@LetitBurn79 Some users said on social platforms that within just 1.5 hours they lost about $450

As more examples of losses emerged, some users have publicly called for Phantom to provide a compensation mechanism, arguing that the platform failed to operate stably during high-volatility periods, which has already affected trading decisions.

The incident also sparked discussions in the market about whether “front-end display errors should be held responsible,” especially in DeFi and self-custody wallet scenarios, where users typically need to assume operational risk themselves, leaving responsibility boundaries still in a gray area.

Security concerns rise, and phishing attacks appear

During the service interruption, blockchain security firm PeckShield warned that bad actors may take advantage of the chaotic state to launch phishing attacks, tricking users into clicking malicious websites or signing suspicious transactions.

Image source: X/@PeckShieldAlert Blockchain security firm PeckShield warned that bad actors may take advantage of the chaotic state to launch phishing attacks, tricking users into clicking malicious websites or signing suspicious transactions

Past research has already pointed out that the Phantom wallet has an “address pollution” risk, where attackers confuse users’ addresses by sending forged transactions, further inducing people to mistakenly transfer assets. This incident once again amplified related security concerns.

Experts remind users that when anomalies occur at the application layer, they should verify their asset status through an on-chain explorer, rather than relying solely on wallet display information for their actions.

Technical issue has been fixed, but the trust crisis remains to be observed

Phantom later announced within a few hours that the issue had been resolved and advised users who still encountered anomalies to contact customer support for assistance. The official has not disclosed the specific cause, but the industry generally believes this incident may have stemmed from delayed data integration or API updates, not from a failure of the blockchain itself.

In fact, Phantom has previously experienced similar balance display delays, showing that even in situations involving high-frequency trading and large-scale simultaneous user activity, front-end infrastructure still has pressure points and bottlenecks.

This incident highlights that although self-custody wallets emphasize user control over assets, they still face challenges similar to centralized exchanges in terms of user experience and system stability. How to strike a balance between decentralization and reliability has become an important issue for the next step of the industry.

This article aggregates information from various parties generated by the Crypto Agent, and has been proofread and edited by 《Crypto City》. It is still in the training stage and may contain logical deviations or information errors. The content is for reference only and must not be considered investment advice.