Setting up Phantom, step by step

A wallet is not an account with a company. Nobody can reset it, freeze it, or hand it back to you. It is a key, stored on your device, that proves the coins on Solana are yours.

Step 1: Install it

1. 1
   Go to phantom.com

   Type it yourself. Do not use a link from a DM, a reply, an ad, or a search result you didn’t read carefully. Fake wallet sites are the single most common way people get emptied, and they rank on ads.
2. 2
   Add to your browser

   Chrome, Brave, Firefox and Edge all work. The extension store page should show Phantom with hundreds of thousands of ratings, if it shows a few dozen, you are on a fake.
3. 3
   Pin it

   Click the puzzle-piece icon in your browser toolbar and pin Phantom, so you always open it from the same place rather than hunting for a tab.

Step 2: Create the wallet and save your phrase

Phantom will show you a secret recovery phrase: twelve ordinary words in a specific order. Those words are the wallet. Anyone who has them owns everything in it, instantly and irreversibly.

1. 1
   Write the words on paper

   Actual paper. In order. Then write a second copy and keep it somewhere else.
2. 2
   Do not photograph it

   A screenshot goes to your camera roll, which syncs to the cloud. That turns a phrase only you know into a phrase a data breach can reach.
3. 3
   Never type it into a website

   Not to “verify”, not to “claim an airdrop”, not for support. Phantom itself will never ask for it after setup. Any site that asks is stealing.

Step 3: Put SOL in it

SOL is the currency of the network. You need it for two reasons: to buy coins with, and to pay transaction fees, which are tiny, a fraction of a cent, but never zero.

1. 1
   Buy SOL somewhere that takes normal money

   An exchange like Coinbase or Kraken, or Phantom’s own built-in buy button, which takes a card. The built-in route is simplest; an exchange is usually cheaper.
2. 2
   Send it to your Phantom address

   Copy your address from Phantom (it starts with letters and numbers, about 44 characters). On the exchange, withdraw SOL to that address and make sure the network says Solana. Sending on the wrong network loses the funds.
3. 3
   Send a small test first

   Move $5 before you move $500. Confirm it arrives. This one habit has saved a lot of people a lot of money.
4. 4
   Keep a little spare

   Leave roughly 0.02 SOL untouched for fees. If your balance hits exactly zero you cannot transact at all, including to sell.

Step 4: Connect and trade

1. 1
   Press Connect, top right

   Pick Phantom. It opens a popup asking to connect. Connecting only shares your public address. It never lets a site move your funds.
2. 2
   Approve each trade yourself

   Every buy and sell pops up in Phantom for you to approve. Read what it says. If a popup appears when you did not press anything, reject it.
3. 3
   Disconnect when you're done

   Optional, but tidy. In Phantom: Settings → Connected apps → remove anything you don’t recognise.