Crypto wallet Phantom crashes big time! During the air drop period, prices got mixed up, triggering a wave of user claims for compensation

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

Unexpected malfunction during the airdrop period causes abnormal price and balance displays

A popular Solana ecosystem wallet, Phantom, suffered an unexpected service interruption late Monday, causing abnormal displays for multiple token prices and account balances on the platform. The malfunction occurred during a widely watched airdrop campaign, when trading demand surged dramatically, quickly enlarging the scope of the problem.

The official statement said the abnormality mainly affected front-end data refreshes, preventing users from viewing the correct asset figures in real time, and even resulting in displays such as price crashes or assets “drop to zero.” Although Phantom emphasized that “user asset safety was not affected,” the incorrect information has already materially interfered with market behavior.

Users couldn’t trade and incurred losses; the community demands full compensation

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

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

As more case reports of returns emerged, some users have publicly demanded that Phantom provide a compensation mechanism, arguing that the platform failed to operate stably during high-volatility periods, which has affected trading decisions.

The incident also sparked discussion 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 bear operational risks themselves, leaving the boundaries of responsibility in a gray area.

Security concerns rise as phishing attacks take advantage

During the service interruption, blockchain security firm PeckShield warned that malicious actors might exploit the chaotic state to carry out phishing attacks—tricking users into clicking malicious websites or signing suspicious transactions.

Image source: X/@PeckShieldAlert Blockchain security firm PeckShield warned that malicious actors might exploit the chaotic state to carry out phishing attacks—tricking users into clicking malicious websites or signing suspicious transactions

Past research has indicated that Phantom Wallet has an “address contamination” risk: attackers confuse users’ addresses by sending forged transactions, further inducing misdirected asset transfers. This incident once again magnified related security concerns.

Experts advise that when something goes wrong at the application layer, users should verify their asset status through an on-chain explorer rather than relying solely on wallet display information for decision-making.

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. The official has not disclosed the specific cause, but industry consensus generally suggests the incident may have stemmed from data integration problems or delayed API updates, rather than a malfunction 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 usage, front-end infrastructure still faces bottlenecks.

This incident highlights that although self-custody wallets emphasize asset ownership, they still face challenges similar to those of 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 industry’s next steps.

This article is generated by the Crypto Agent aggregating information from various parties, and is currently still in training stage, so there may be logic bias or information inaccuracies. The content is for reference only and should not be taken as investment advice.