Phantom, a prominent multi-chain crypto wallet provider, faced criticism after their social interaction with Ace of AI, which many interpreted as a formal partnership between the two projects, led to confusion and investor losses.

On Jan. 9, Ace of AI announced on X that they were “excited to partner with Phantom” as part of the Phantom embedded early access program. Phantom replied to Ace of AI’s tweet with a series of emojis that were interpreted as an official partnership.

The announcement led to a surge in the price of Ace of AI’s token, ACE. According to data from GeckoTerminal, the token rocketed to $0.017 following the news.

Phantom later deleted the comment and clarified in a separate statement that Ace of AI was merely using their embedded wallet product and that no partnership or endorsement existed. They said they were unaware their service would be used to endorse any token.

There is no partnership. @Aceofai is just using our embedded wallet product. We are NOT endorsing any token and weren’t aware we would be used to do so.

— Phantom (@phantom) January 9, 2025

ACE’s value quickly plummeted after Phantom’s clarification. Currently, it is trading at approximately $0.0005, down over 90% from its initial rally.

Users on X started confronting Phantom and questioning their communication approach. Many investors reported that they felt misled by the perceived association between the two companies and suffered financial losses.

If there is no partnership, why did @adamdelphantom retweet the 👻🤝♠️?

0 apologies or responsibility taken by @phantom

We're literally getting RUGGED over here due to your incompetence https://t.co/8QAAxUWQ0g

— Psycho (@PsychosCalls) January 9, 2025

Phantom just rugged everyone and pulled out $400k from the chart pic.twitter.com/m8nqz4sA5a

— lynk (@lynk0x) January 9, 2025