Phantom, a decentralized crypto wallet, has surged past Coinbase (COIN) in the Apple App Store rankings, indicating a shift towards on-chain transactions as traders turn to high-risk memecoins. This trend is being fueled in part by TikTok, where users are learning how to navigate wallets that are more complex than centralized exchanges such as Coinbase.
Phantom CEO Brandon Millman explains, “Traditional centralized exchanges can’t keep up with all of the new on-chain paradigms fast enough.” The shift is notable, as Coinbase’s App Store ranking has long been a measure of retail trader participation in a bull market. However, this bull run is seeing a different player ascend the ladder.
At press time, Phantom had climbed to the seventh spot among free applications on Apple’s U.S. App Store, well ahead of Coinbase, which stood at 27th. This challenges the notion that mainstream traders prefer the more accessible user experience offered by platforms like Coinbase.
The memecoin trend has played a significant role in this shift. Established exchanges like Coinbase often don’t list new, highly speculative, and risky joke tokens that traders are eager to bet on. To access these tokens, traders are turning to on-chain platforms like Phantom.
One memecoin, Chill Guy, has garnered significant attention on TikTok and on-chain bids. Supported by a robust social media campaign, CHILLGUY’s market cap skyrocketed to $500 million in just a matter of days. Acquiring CHILLGUY and other new memecoins requires more effort than more established tokens. Traders must navigate decentralized exchanges and grapple with intricate order settings.
Whether TikTok is the primary driver of new on-chain users remains to be seen. The app’s crypto scene lacks viral videos with millions of views. Instead, it is populated by crypto enthusiasts sharing their aspirations of wealth and tutorials on how to download Phantom.
Coinbase isn’t completely ignoring the memecoin trend. In the past week, it has added FLOKI and PEPE, along with WIF for German traders. These tokens have larger market caps and are relatively more stable than newer memecoins only accessible on-chain.
A spokesperson for Coinbase stated, “Our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world, and we know we can’t do it alone. We believe a rising tide raises all boats, and we are thrilled to see more people engaging on-chain and with crypto over the last few weeks.”
While Coinbase is still dipping its toes into the memecoin space, it is looking to foster and capitalize on this trend with its layer-2 network, Base. Although Base’s memecoin scene isn’t as vibrant as Solana’s (SOL), it still sees millions of dollars in daily volume.
The spokesperson added, “We’re focused on making on-chain faster, cheaper and easier to use, so on-chain technology is accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. We’re looking forward to bringing a billion people on-chain.”
