30s Summary

Crypto wallet Phantom has surpassed Coinbase in Apple App Store rankings, indicating growing interest in riskier meme cryptocurrencies. Meme coins require more effort to purchase than Bitcoin on Coinbase, making them less user-friendly, but tutorials on platforms like TikTok help. Traders wanting to engage in meme coins must use wallets like Phantom. This challenges the notion that mainstream traders prefer easily accessible experiences. Although Coinbase has added some meme coins and established a layer-2 network to deal with the trend, its ranking remains lower than Phantom’s, reflecting the shifting dynamics of the crypto trading world.

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Phantom, a crypto wallet, has surpassed Coinbase in rankings on the Apple App Store. This change highlights how traders are moving towards meme cryptocurrencies which are high risk. TikTok videos are helping users understand and use complicated crypto wallets. “Traditional exchanges can’t keep up with all the new crypto activity fast enough,” stated Phantom CEO Brandon Millman.

In the crypto fandom Coinbase’s ranking used to be a good indicator of how active retail traders were during a crypto surge. But this is no longer true as Phantom, a decentralized crypto wallet, has taken the lead. Phantom is now 7th in free applications on the U.S. App Store, leaving Coinbase at 27th.

This shift is changing perceptions of what new traders can handle when starting in crypto. Buying meme cryptocurrencies requires more effort than buying Bitcoin on Coinbase. Users have to navigate decentralized exchanges and learn to customize settings to get decent prices. The setup is not as user friendly as established exchanges.

There has been increased interest in meme coins like Chill Guy which rose from nothing to a market cap of as high as $500 million. Traders wanting to dabble in these coins have to deal with on-chain operations through wallets like Phantom.

Phantom taking the lead over Coinbase challenges the expectation that mainstream traders prefer accessible experiences. Meme coins have become popular. To buy them, traders need to move on-chain.

Coinbase has started supporting some meme coins and continues onboarding new ones. In the last week, Coinbase added support for FLOKI, PEPE, and WIF (only for German traders). Coinbase aims to increase global economic freedom and is “happy to see more people engaging with crypto,” said a spokesperson for Coinbase.

Coinbase is trying to keep pace with meme coin activity with its layer-2 network, Base. Although Base’s meme coin activity isn’t as active as Solana, millions of dollars are still transacted every day. “We’re focused on making on-chain faster, cheaper and easier to use for everyone, anywhere in the world,” the spokesperson said.