World Prediction Market Launches on Solana, Reaching Phantom's 20M Users

Solana News

World, an on-chain prediction market built on the Solana (SOL) blockchain, has officially launched inside the Phantom crypto wallet, giving millions of users direct access to peer-to-peer forecasting. The project confirmed its debut on July 1, though Phantom's disclosure page indicates World has quietly powered the wallet's prediction markets since June 1. Current offerings let users wager on short-term Bitcoin price movements and outcomes tied to the 2026 World Cup, with the team signaling additional markets across sports, geopolitics and macroeconomics in the coming weeks. As a Solana-native product, World routes market entry, position-building and settlement entirely on-chain.

Solana ranked among the market's strongest performers on Friday, leading a broad crypto rebound alongside Ethereum as bearish traders were caught in a violent short squeeze. The recovery marked the most forceful weekly bounce since mid-June, with Bitcoin briefly approaching 62,000 dollars. Short covering amplified the move: as traders holding bearish positions were forced to buy back exposure, prices climbed further and triggered successive waves of liquidations. Derivatives data show the reversal gathered pace after Bitcoin had slipped beneath 58,000 dollars earlier in the week, before the leading token recovered toward roughly 61,700 dollars as the broader altcoin complex turned higher.

The scale of the deleveraging underscored how one-sided positioning had become. Derivatives data show roughly 427 million dollars in positions were forcibly closed across the market over 24 hours, sweeping up 91,891 traders. Short sellers absorbed the brunt of the damage with 283 million dollars in losses, against 143 million dollars for longs. The single largest liquidation was an 18.2 million-dollar Ethereum position, and Ether-linked liquidations reached 157 million dollars on the day, exceeding Bitcoin's 103 million dollars. The cascade illustrates the reflexive mechanics of a short squeeze, where forced buybacks feed directly into the next layer of stop-outs, accelerating moves in thin summer conditions.

Institutional flows offered a second tailwind. Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded 221.7 million dollars in net inflows on Thursday, the largest single-day intake in two months and enough to end a punishing streak of 10 consecutive days of withdrawals totaling about 2.73 billion dollars. The turn is meaningful because sustained, stable ETF inflows have historically been a precondition for durable uptrends. Even so, the picture remains incomplete: year-to-date flows are still net negative at roughly 5.4 billion dollars, signaling that institutional conviction has not fully recovered. One session of buying improves the short-term tone without confirming a trend reversal for either Bitcoin or higher-beta assets.

World's pitch centers on removing the trust assumptions of legacy prediction platforms. Where traditional venues rely on centralized infrastructure and move funds off-chain, World operates as a self-custody trading platform where users retain control from entry through redemption, echoing the design logic behind on-chain automated market makers. Settlement uses Phantom's CASH stablecoin, with winning positions automatically redeemed in the token. The project leans on a fast oracle network to secure the speed and transparency of outcome resolution, and taps Phantom's roughly 20 million-user base for distribution. Opening a wallet to participate sharply lowers the onboarding barrier, though World still trails established rivals on liquidity and market breadth.

The macro backdrop reinforced the risk-on turn. Softer-than-expected US June employment data trimmed expectations for further Federal Reserve tightening and pressured the dollar, prompting traders to pare rate-hike bets. Gold advanced for a third straight session as investors leaned into the view that rates have peaked, while global equities steadied. Asian markets rebounded after a run of technology-stock losses, with South Korea's KOSPI climbing 3 percent and Samsung Electronics surging 6.8 percent on reports of a custom AI-chip manufacturing discussion. For crypto, an easing rate outlook and a weaker dollar historically loosen financial conditions, supporting appetite for higher-beta assets like Solana.

Our reading of COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine frames Solana's setup as constructive but capped. As of this writing SOL trades near 81.10 dollars, up 1.90 percent on the day. The engine rates the 87.51-dollar resistance at 65/100 (strong), driven by the confluence of the point of control and the 0.786 Fibonacci level, with 82.76 dollars close behind at 64/100 from the prior-day high and Donchian upper band. Support at 74.75 dollars scores 67/100, anchored by the SMA 20 and Ichimoku Kijun. Derivatives data show a barely positive 0.0012 percent funding rate, 1.98 billion dollars in open interest and a 1.93 long/short ratio — crowded longs. An RSI of 63.98 and a bullish MACD lean positive, yet a market-wide Fear and Greed reading of 21 (Extreme Fear) caps conviction; a decisive loss of 74.75 dollars would invalidate the bullish thesis.