Author: Kurumi, Crypto City
A sudden malfunction during the Airdrop period causes abnormal price and balance displays
On Monday evening, a popular Solana ecosystem wallet, Phantom, unexpectedly suffered an outage, causing multiple token prices and account balance displays within the platform to appear abnormal. This malfunction occurred during a popular airdrop campaign, where transaction demand surged significantly, quickly escalating the issue.
The official statement said the abnormality mainly affected front-end data updates, preventing users from viewing the correct asset values in real time, and even resulting in displays such as price crashes or assets showing as zero. Although Phantom emphasized that “users’ asset safety was not affected,” the incorrect information had already materially interfered with market behavior.
Users are unable to trade and incur losses; the community demands full compensation
During the outage, multiple users reported being unable to sell their tokens smoothly, missing out on opportunities from price fluctuations, and even seeing paper losses. Some users said on community platforms that within just 1.5 hours they lost about $450, roughly NT$14k, sparking panic that spread.
Image source: X/@LetitBurn79 ｜ Some users on community platforms said they lost about $450 within just 1.5 hours
As more cases of returns/compensation emerge, some users have publicly called on Phantom to provide a compensation mechanism, arguing that the platform failed to operate reliably during a high-volatility period, which has affected trading decisions.
The incident has also triggered market discussions about whether “front-end display errors should be held responsible,” especially in DeFi and self-custody wallet scenarios, where users typically must bear operational risks themselves, leaving a gray area in the responsibility boundaries.
Security concerns intensify, phishing attacks take the opportunity
During the service interruption, blockchain security firm PeckShield warned that malicious actors may use the chaotic state to launch phishing attacks, tricking users into clicking malicious websites or signing suspicious transactions.
Image source: X/@PeckShieldAlert ｜ Blockchain security company PeckShield warns that malicious actors may use the chaotic state to launch phishing attacks, tricking users into clicking malicious websites or signing suspicious transactions
Past research has indicated that the Phantom wallet has an “address pollution” risk: attackers can confuse users’ addresses by sending forged transactions, further inducing misdirected asset transfers. 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 only on the wallet’s displayed information for operations.
The technical issue has been fixed, but the trust crisis remains to be observed
Phantom later announced within a few hours that the problem had been fixed and advised that users who still encounter abnormalities contact customer support. The official has not yet disclosed the specific cause, but industry consensus is that the incident may have been due to delays in data consolidation or API updates, rather than a malfunction of the blockchain itself.
In fact, Phantom has previously experienced similar issues with balance display delays, showing that even in scenarios involving high-frequency trading and large-scale simultaneous user activity, the front-end infrastructure still faces bottlenecks.
This incident highlights that although self-custody wallets emphasize users’ control over their assets, they still face challenges similar to those of centralized exchanges in terms of user experience and system stability. Finding a balance between decentralization and reliability has become an important next step for the industry.
