Phantom Wallet Down Due to High Demand for GRASS Token Airdrop

Phantom, a leading non-custodial wallet provider on the Solana network, has experienced another disruption, identified by the protocol as an "uptime incident."

In an update shared on its official X (formerly known as Twitter) account, Phantom announced that some services may be temporarily suspended.

Users were cautioned to disregard simulation errors when attempting urgent transactions and were encouraged to use decentralised applications (dApps) to minimise disruptions.

On 28 October, Phantom faced nearly three hours of downtime as users rushed to claim GRASS tokens, leading to reports of missing balances and transaction failures.

According to Phantom Status, a significant backend issue rendered the wallet unresponsive from 1:36 PM UTC until service was restored at 4:20 PM UTC.

This incident marks the second disruption this month, following an 8-minute outage on 3 October.

GRASS tokens are native to the decentralised physical infrastructure network, Grass, which incentivises users to lend unused internet bandwidth, subsequently utilising this capacity to train and refine AI models.

The official Grass documentation states that 100 million GRASS tokens, amounting to 10% of the total supply, will be distributed in this initial airdrop.

Backpack CEO noted that the wallet difficulties were linked to the airdrop, while Solflare CEO Vidor Gencel mentioned that the wallet experienced "minor degradation" but successfully scaled up.

Following the resolution of these issues, Phantom assured users via X that the team would "continue to actively monitor the situation" and implement necessary measures to prevent future occurrences.

Users Unrest Arise

Numerous users have taken to X to express frustration over their inability to access airdropped tokens, even an hour after the distribution commenced.

Reports indicate that some wallet addresses, previously confirmed as eligible by Grass Network's airdrop checker, are now marked as 'not eligible.’

Additionally, users of Solana's leading wallet have faced intermittent challenges in viewing accurate token balances and account information.

These persistent issues have intensified dissatisfaction among crypto enthusiasts who depend on Phantom for their transaction needs.

Community Worries that SOL Outage Will Return

The recent outage of Phantom Wallet is reigniting concerns about sell-offs within the Solana ecosystem, which has a history of service interruptions.

Initially celebrated for its speed and scalability, Solana has faced significant challenges, particularly during the surge of meme coins that strained the network's capacity.

This influx of meme coin traders has led to intermittent outages, with Phantom Wallet emerging as one of the most affected dApps on the platform.

In 2024 alone, Phantom reported 12 significant backend incidents, including seven on 1 February, resulting in nearly 90 minutes of downtime.

Just two days later, users experienced delays in token balance updates.

Despite these disruptions, the overall impact on the broader ecosystem has been relatively minimal, as services typically resume within hours.

As of April, Phantom boasts around seven million users, making the service outages particularly noticeable among Solana enthusiasts.

Interestingly, while Phantom experienced downtime, the Solana network itself remained operational, as evidenced by Solana Status data indicating 90 days of continuous uptime.

Despite claims from the team led by Anatoly Yakovenko about major fixes implemented in March, challenges persist for some dApps.

Comprehensive troubleshooting efforts are anticipated in the coming weeks, aimed at providing a more lasting solution.

In addressing the issues with Phantom Wallet, Yakovenko has also hinted at plans to draw inspiration from Ethereum's executive layer innovations, suggesting a commitment to building a more sustainable and resilient future for the Solana ecosystem.