You won’t pay a cent for Phantom or Backpack, and neither one ever holds your keys. They both grew up on Solana. Where they’ve gone since is the interesting part: Phantom has turned itself into something close to a trading app, and Backpack’s phone app doubles as the front door to an exchange owned by the same company.
Go with Phantom if the scam warnings matter most to you and you’d like Bitcoin, Base and Polygon sitting in the same list as your SOL. Backpack makes more sense when you’re on Arbitrum or Optimism, when you hold Sui, or when the device you sign with is a Trezor or a Keystone rather than a Ledger.
Phantom is also dropping Sui. Its support for the network ends on September 24, 2026, after which the app stops showing Sui balances, stops handling Sui transactions and drops Sui from its network list, so Phantom tells Sui holders to swap into a supported network before then or import their recovery phrase into Slush, the Sui Foundation’s recommended wallet.
We’ve looked at security, day-to-day use, networks, fees and staking. All the numbers came straight off Phantom’s and Backpack’s own sites in September 2026.
Table of contents
Phantom vs Backpack at a Glance
If you only read one thing, make it this table.
Phantom vs Backpack: Comparison Chart | |
|---|---|
| What it costs to install | Phantom is free. So is Backpack. |
| Chains it will hold | Phantom takes Solana, Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Robinhood Chain, Bitcoin and HyperEVM, and it drops Sui on September 24, 2026. Backpack’s help centre names Solana, Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, Base and Sonic, and its App Store page adds Sui, Eclipse, Monad and Tron. |
| Bitcoin | Phantom holds it, on Native Segwit and Taproot. Backpack leaves it off every wallet network list we found. |
| Where it runs | Phantom fully backs Chrome, iOS and Android, with Brave, Opera and Edge running it unofficially. Backpack covers Chrome, Brave, Arc, iOS and Android. |
| Its cut on a swap | Phantom takes 0.85% on select pairs. Backpack’s wallet help pages don’t name a fee. |
| Earning on SOL | Phantom stakes natively from 1 SOL, in the extension only, and its PSOL keeps 4% of rewards plus a 0.1% exit fee. Backpack stakes natively from 0.01 SOL and offers bpSOL with a 0% validator fee. |
| Cold storage it talks to | Phantom pairs with Ledger and nothing else. Backpack pairs with Ledger, Trezor and Keystone. |
| Catching bad transactions | Phantom runs scam detection built on Blowfish and keeps its blocklist public. Backpack gives scam detection alerts, NFT collection locking and a warning for wallets that look compromised. |
| Bug bounty | Phantom pays as much as $50,000. Backpack’s Web and API program tops out at $100,000. |
| Can you read the code? | Phantom keeps the wallet app private but posts its audit reports. Backpack’s GPL-3.0 repository is public, labelled unaudited, and last saw a commit in February 2024. |
| Everything bolted on | Phantom adds a Cash account and card, perps, prediction markets and Terminal. Backpack’s phone app is also Backpack Exchange, with spot, futures, lending and US stocks. |
| Who we’d send to it | Phantom fits people holding Solana and Bitcoin who want solid transaction screening. Backpack fits Trezor and Keystone owners, Arbitrum and Optimism users, and anyone staking small sums. |
So What Is Phantom These Days?
Phantom keeps your private keys on your own device, so the company can’t touch your coins. That’s what self-custodial means, and Phantom puts it plainly: “Self-custodial means you control your funds. We never have access.”
It launched in January 2021. Today it claims more than 20 million users, and its January 2025 Series C brought in $150M at a $3B valuation. On the US App Store the iOS app scores 4.8, from 64K ratings.
Call it a wallet if you like, but Phantom’s own home page has moved on. It pitches itself as “The money app that’ll take you places” and puts prediction markets, perpetual futures, a desktop trading screen named Terminal and a Cash account right next to the wallet. We ran it against its nearest Solana rival in our Phantom vs Solflare piece, if you want a second opinion.
Where Phantom Shines
- Seven networks share one account, and you flip each on or off under Settings > Active Networks.
- The transaction previews and scam flags come from Blowfish, a security company Phantom bought.
- Its list of phishing sites lives on GitHub, where anyone can read it.
- You can stake SOL directly or take PSOL, its liquid staking token, instead.
- Swaps stay on one network, and LI.FI handles the bridging when you need to cross over.
- A Ledger connects by Bluetooth on your phone or by cable in the browser.
And What Is Backpack, Exactly?
In Backpack’s words, it’s “a security conscious self-custodial crypto wallet for Solana, Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, Base, Sonic and many more blockchains”. Backpack Technologies Ltd. publishes the iOS app. It sits at 4.4 on the US App Store, though that’s from just 231 ratings.
Here’s the twist. The same company operates Backpack Exchange, a custodial exchange claiming $400B+ in volume and $350M+ under custody, and it advertises a MiCA licence in the EU, a VARA licence in Dubai and FinCEN registration in the US.
On your phone, one app gives you both the exchange and the wallet. The browser extension is wallet only.
The split matters because whatever’s in the wallet belongs to you, while whatever’s on the exchange is held by Backpack, and we walk through that difference in our crypto wallet vs exchange guide.
Where Backpack Shines
- Ledger, Trezor and Keystone all plug in.
- Native staking starts at 0.01 SOL, and bpSOL, its liquid staking token, charges a 0% validator fee.
- Lock an NFT collection and Backpack turns down any transaction that tries to move it.
- Several recovery phrases can live apart in their own account groups and folders.
- There’s a SOL/ETH bridge tucked into the swap screen.
- For multisig it works with Squads, Realms or Safe, and the signing happens on your hardware wallet.
How Phantom and Backpack Keep You Safe
You hold the keys in both, and that cuts both ways: lose your backup and no one at either company can get you back in. Phantom gives you a 12-word recovery phrase and keeps no copy. Backpack is just as blunt, saying that without your phrase or private keys it “will not be able to help you recover the Wallet”.
That recovery phrase (people also call it a seed phrase) is the string of words that rebuilds every key you own. Put it on paper. Don’t ever type it into a website, whatever the page claims, and read our explainer on custodial vs non-custodial wallets if you’re not sure what you’re signing up for.
On the public record, Phantom is well ahead. It bought Blowfish, which it credits with 2.8 million scams prevented, 1.3 billion transactions scanned and more than $18 billion of assets protected.
Its phishing blocklist is out in the open on GitHub. You’ll also find audit reports there from Kudelski Security (2021) and Least Authority (2024), and we like being able to read them for ourselves.
Find a flaw that could cost users their money and Phantom’s security page promises up to $50,000. The same page says it never tracks personally identifiable information or asset balances.
Backpack talks about scam detection alerts and something it calls real-time scam protection. It’ll also flag a wallet when on-chain signs suggest it’s been compromised. Collection locking guards your NFTs too, but only for select projects, and only while you stay inside Backpack.
Critical bugs earn $10,000 to $100,000 under Backpack’s bounty. Trouble is, the program’s called “Backpack Web & API”, and nothing we read confirms the wallet apps are covered.
Code you can read isn’t automatically code someone has checked. Backpack’s wallet code is public under GPL-3.0 on GitHub, yet the README warns: “This code is unaudited. Use at your own risk.” The newest commit there dates to February 14, 2024, while the App Store app has reached version 2.85.0, and that gap makes us wary of treating the repo as a window into the app you’d actually install.
Phantom goes the other way. SDKs, the blocklist and audit reports are all public, but the wallet app’s own source isn’t.
Neither company reports a wallet breach on its own site. We didn’t turn one up either.
Hardware is where Backpack pulls clear. With Phantom it’s Ledger or nothing: the Nano X, Stax and Flex connect over Bluetooth on your phone, and the Nano S, Nano S Plus, Stax and Flex connect by cable.
The Ledger Nano Gen5, every Trezor and every Tangem are all off the list. That annoys us more than anything else in Phantom.
Backpack talks to Ledger, Trezor and Keystone, and bills itself as the only Solana wallet that handles all three. So a Trezor Safe 5 works, and so does the air-gapped Keystone 3 Pro. Backpack even documents a multisig setup through Squads, Realms or Safe, and our roundup of the best multisig wallets explains how that kind of setup protects you.
If you already own a Ledger, either wallet will do, and our Ledger Nano X review covers the Bluetooth model both of them accept.
If you’re shopping for a different device, start with the best crypto hardware wallets.
Using Phantom vs Backpack Every Day
Setting up Phantom’s extension means clicking through “Create a New Wallet” and “Create a Recovery Phrase Wallet”, choosing a password of eight characters or more, confirming “I saved my Recovery Phrase”, and finishing with “Continue” and “Get Started”. Oddly, you can only make a brand new recovery-phrase wallet in the extension. There’s also a Google or Apple sign-up, and even that wallet lets you export a phrase.
Backpack opens with ‘Create a new wallet’ and then wants a network. You’re free to bolt more networks onto the same account afterwards with ‘Add Network’ in the extension. Extra recovery phrases each get their own account group, filed into folders.
Neither makes swapping hard. On your phone, Phantom wants the “+” button, then “Trade”, then “Swap Now”. Backpack’s version: hit Swap, choose your tokens, look over the details and Approve.
We found staking friendlier in Backpack. Open SOL, tap ‘Stake SOL to Earn’, then ‘Add Stake’ and ‘Stake’, and you’re done. Phantom tucks native staking away behind “More” and “Stake SOL”, and it won’t let you do it outside the browser extension at all.
Browser choice is thin on both sides. Phantom officially supports Chrome, iOS and Android, puts up with Brave, Opera and Edge unofficially, has stopped updating its Firefox extension and skips Safari entirely. Backpack sticks to Chrome, Brave and Arc, along with Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.
Buying with a card isn’t the same experience. Backpack hands you over to MoonPay via “Cash” and then “Buy Crypto”, you pay by Apple Pay or card, and MoonPay does the identity checks. With Phantom, topping up the Cash account costs 1.75% on a debit card and 3.50% on a credit card.
Spam NFTs? Phantom lets you burn them. Backpack gives you a “Hide Some” toggle plus a Burn button, although compressed NFTs can’t be burned, and if you mostly live on your phone, our pick of the best mobile crypto wallets is worth a look.
Which Networks Phantom and Backpack Cover
Phantom handles Solana, Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Robinhood Chain, Bitcoin (Native Segwit and Taproot) and HyperEVM. BSC, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, Unichain and Linea are all missing. Sui goes away on September 24, 2026, and Phantom is steering Sui holders towards Slush.
Pinning down Backpack’s list is harder than it should be. Its help centre says Solana, Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, Base and Sonic, the App Store listing throws in Sui, Eclipse, Monad and Tron, and the exchange home page just says “10+ networks”.
Bitcoin’s the hole. The backpack.app page title mentions BTC, yet not one of Backpack’s wallet network lists includes it, so look inside the app before you send any.
| Network | Phantom | Backpack |
|---|---|---|
| Solana | Supported | Supported |
| Ethereum, Base, Polygon | Supported | Supported |
| Arbitrum, Optimism | Not supported | Supported |
| Bitcoin | Supported | Missing from its lists |
| Sui | Only until September 24, 2026 | Named on its App Store page |
| Sonic | Not supported | Supported |
| Robinhood Chain, HyperEVM | Supported | Missing from its lists |
Whichever wallet you land on, the same rule holds. Send to the wrong address, or on the wrong network, and that money’s gone for good, with nobody able to undo it. Double-check the wallet address and the network every single time.
What Phantom and Backpack Really Cost You
Installing them costs nothing. You pay when you swap, stake or buy.
Phantom’s cut is 0.85% on select swap pairs at the time of writing (September 2026). Bridging adds whatever the bridge charges, which Phantom puts at 0.1 to 0.5%, though none of the network fee goes to Phantom. Trades worth $0.30 or more can use its gasless Solana swaps.
We couldn’t find a swap fee anywhere in Backpack’s wallet help pages. Its learn page says a Solana wallet is free, with costs limited to “minimal Solana network fees for transactions”. Without a published number, we’d look hard at the quote screen before tapping Approve.
Backpack’s the cheaper place to stake. You can delegate from just 0.01 SOL, and the stake goes live within 24 hours, whereas Phantom asks for 1 SOL before it’ll stake natively. bpSOL skips the validator fee entirely (it’s 0%), and Backpack reckons it can lift your rewards by up to 15%, rates permitting.
PSOL is pricier. Phantom keeps a 4% protocol fee on the rewards and charges a 0.1% exit fee when you unstake or swap out. Pulling a native stake out of Backpack means waiting for the next Solana epoch, 2-3 days by its FAQ’s reckoning.
What We Like and What Bugs Us
Phantom: The Good and the Bad
Backpack: The Good and the Bad
So Which Wallet Should You Install?
Keep Bitcoin next to your SOL and care most about spotting a bad transaction before you sign it? Go with Phantom, especially if a Ledger is already sitting in your drawer.
Own a Trezor or a Keystone, or spend your time on Arbitrum or Optimism? That’s Backpack. Phantom doesn’t support any of them.
Backpack is also our pick if you’re staking under 1 SOL or holding Sui. Phantom won’t stake natively below 1 SOL, and it stops supporting Sui on September 24, 2026.
Phantom vs Backpack FAQ
Is Backpack a safer wallet than Phantom?
Not clearly, no. You hold the keys in both, so your recovery phrase is what really protects you. Phantom shows more of its security work, from audit reports to Blowfish scam detection, while Backpack connects to more hardware wallets.
Can I use a Trezor with Phantom?
No. Phantom sticks to Ledger and marks every Trezor model unsupported, so Trezor owners should look at Backpack.
Can my Phantom wallet be moved into Backpack?
Backpack will import a secret recovery phrase, and Phantom’s phrases run to 12 words. Once it’s imported, compare the addresses with the ones in Phantom before sending anything.
What happens to Sui in Phantom after September 24, 2026?
Nothing is lost. The coins stay on the Sui blockchain, and any compatible wallet can reach them with your existing recovery phrase. Phantom points people to Slush, and Backpack names Sui on its App Store page.
How much does Backpack charge to swap?
We don’t know, because its wallet help pages don’t say. Read the quote screen before you approve. For comparison, Phantom takes 0.85% on select pairs.
Are Backpack Wallet and Backpack Exchange the same thing?
Partly. One company runs both, and they share a phone app. Your wallet stays self-custodial, while the exchange holds customer funds and asks you to verify your identity.
Where should I stake SOL, Phantom or Backpack?
Backpack suits most people here. You can stake natively from 0.01 SOL instead of 1 SOL, and bpSOL’s validator fee is 0% where PSOL keeps 4% of rewards.
Our Verdict: Phantom or Backpack?
For most Solana users who also keep Bitcoin, or some ETH on Base, we’d pick Phantom. It shows its security work more openly than Backpack does, it claims more than 20 million users, and its Ledger support reaches the Nano X, Stax and Flex on your phone. You pay for that with a 0.85% swap fee and a hardware list that stops at Ledger.
Backpack takes it for Trezor and Keystone owners, for anyone living on Arbitrum or Optimism, and for people staking small amounts of SOL. Just go in knowing the public code carries an unaudited label and the phone app shares space with a custodial exchange.
This article is for general information only and is not financial, legal, or investment advice. Prices and features change; check the vendor’s official page before buying.
