June 9, 2026
10 mins
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June 9, 2026
If you've got SOL, USDC, and a stack of SPL (Solana Program Library) tokens sitting in your Phantom wallet, at some point the question stops being "what should I trade next?" and starts being "what can I actually do with this?"
The good news is that the Phantom wallet is one of the best-positioned setups in all of crypto for real-world spending. You have near-zero transaction fees, Solana-native USDC stable coin, and a built-in Jupiter-powered swap infrastructure that allows you to easily swap your tokens into stable coins and vice versa. Because of these reasons, the friction between the crypto in your wallet and the real world spending is much lower than almost anywhere else in the space.
Below, we cover the 15 concrete ways to put the holdings in your Phantom wallet to work, including using your crypto to book hotels and flights at up to 30% better rates than Booking.com on CoinBooking. Take a look.
Phantom wallet is one of the most capable spending setups in crypto right now, and that comes down to a few specific advantages. Because it is built on Solana, transaction fees typically come in under $0.001. This means moving funds for a real-world payment costs you essentially nothing. Ethereum mainnet fees have dropped considerably in 2026 and now average a few cents on quiet days, but they still spike during high-demand periods and remain much higher than Solana's. A bank wire, meanwhile, can cost up to $50 just for one transaction. Solana's fee structure is in a different category entirely.
Second, Phantom's built-in swap infrastructure, powered by Jupiter aggregator, allows you to convert any SPL token to USDC or SOL in seconds without having to go through a centralized exchange. Also, the USDC in your Phantom wallet is native Circle-issued USDC, which is the same USDC that payment processors and merchants already recognize.
And lastly, Phantom wallet now supports Ethereum and Bitcoin alongside Solana, so your spending options extend beyond just the Solana ecosystem. For travel, you can book hotels and flights on CoinBooking, which accepts both USDC on Solana and SOL directly without needing to off-ramp your tokens beforehand.
Phantom wallet gives you everything you need to spend crypto in the real world. Here are 15 ways to take advantage of that.
If you're booking hotels or flights for your travel needs on Expedia or Booking.com, there's a high chance you're paying more than necessary. What most people don’t know is that there is a cheaper alternative that also supports crypto payments.
A Dubai-licensed travel broker, Coinbooking, offers up to 30% lower prices than Booking.com on hotels and flights, while also letting you pay directly with crypto. You can book hotels and flights with SOL, native USDC on Solana, and 200+ other crypto currencies without having to convert to fiat at first or use a centralized exchange.
CoinBooking gives access to more than 2 million hotels and flights across 190+ countries by sourcing deals from over 100 travel aggregators worldwide. It also supports traditional payment methods such as credit card payments, Apple Pay or Google Pay for added flexibility. Users holding over $25,000 in their Phantom wallets also receive the premium CoinBooking Concierge Access for free, which includes a dedicated travel specialist who can search for and negotiate even better deals.
Looking for your next adventure? Check out CoinBooking's must-see destination guide for August, and secure $25 off your first booking.
Phantom doesn't have a native debit card, but you can easily use the crypto in your wallet to fund crypto debit cards like the Crypto.com Card, Binance Card, or Wirex using USDC on Solana or SOL. These cards convert your holdings to local fiat at the point of sale, so you can pay for restaurants, transport, and retail the same way anyone else does.
You can swap to USDC in Phantom via Jupiter if needed then transfer to your crypto card account, and your holdings are good to spend in the real world. Note that Solana’s USDC support varies by card; some accept it natively, while others may require to bridge it to a different network first. Check your card platform's current network support before transferring.
If you're paying designers, developers, writers, or other contractors internationally, USDC on Solana is one of the most efficient payment rails available. Transactions settle in under a second and cost less than $0.001 to send. The recipient needs only a Phantom wallet address or any other Solana-compatible wallet address, with no bank account required on either side.
Compare that to a SWIFT wire which typically costs $20-50 in fees, takes 1-3 business days to settle, and both parties need to have bank accounts in the right jurisdictions. For teams working across borders or paying contractors in markets with limited banking infrastructure, USDC on the Solana network is a natural choice.
Magic Eden and Tensor are the main Solana NFT marketplaces, and Phantom is the native wallet for both, so you can easily connect and start browsing the NFT offers. Solana NFT ecosystem covers art, PFPs, gaming assets, music NFTs, and the growing category of compressed NFTs (cNFTs), which offer even lower minting and transaction costs on an already cheap network.
Compressed NFTs (cNFTs) in particular have exploded in the Solana’s NFT space because of their lower minting costs. It allowed more creators to use the NFT infrastructure which easily grew the NFT supply and variety across categories. For Phantom users who are already NFT-active, this is the best option of intra-ecosystem spending channels on this list.
Bitrefill accepts SOL and Solana-based USDC for gift cards covering Amazon, Uber, Netflix, gaming platforms, among hundreds of other global brands. It's an excellent one-step gateway from your Phantom wallet to everyday retail spending without touching a fiat off-ramp.
The most practical categories for the Phantom audience include gaming credits, streaming subscriptions, food delivery, and e-commerce marketplaces. Before purchasing, confirm that Bitrefill actually accepts your preferred asset on Solana. Network support can change, and it's worth a quick check before you route funds.
If you use Phantom wallet and hold assets like SOL or USDC on Solana, you can use them for everyday digital subscriptions and software without needing a traditional bank card.
Some service providers already accept crypto directly. For example, domain and hosting companies like Namecheap accept Bitcoin payments, and many VPN services, such as NordVPN, Surfshark, and others in the space, also support crypto checkout options. In these cases, you can simply pay using a supported wallet or payment option and complete the transaction in crypto without touching fiat.
For services that don’t accept Solana-based tokens directly, the process is still straightforward. Open your Phantom wallet and use the built-in swap feature powered by Jupiter to convert your assets into whatever the provider accepts, usually BTC, ETH, or stable coins on another chain. Once swapped, you send the payment from your wallet like any normal transfer.
Solana gaming runs on the idea that your Phantom wallet is your login, payment method, and asset vault all in one. Instead of creating accounts or linking cards, you just connect Phantom and use SOL, USDC, or other SPL tokens to buy in-game items directly. Most games are built around NFTs and tokens that power rewards, upgrades, and marketplace activity. Games like Star Atlas, Aurory, Genopets, Nyan Heroes, and STEPN show how this works in practice. You can use tokens in your Phantom wallet to buy assets, upgrade characters, or earn rewards, all through on-chain transactions that settle in seconds.
The practical advantage is control and portability. Assets you buy exist in your wallet instead of being locked inside one game. Phantom simply lets you move between games, marketplaces, and tokens without leaving the Solana ecosystem or relying on traditional payment rails.
The Giving Block processes SOL and USDC on Solana donations for nonprofits, allowing you to donate directly from your wallet without a fiat conversion step. Solana's near-zero transaction fees ensure that a higher percentage of what you donate reaches the cause instead of covering network costs, which is a real distinction compared to donations on higher-fee chains.
Crypto donations may be tax-deductible in some jurisdictions, but that's a question for your accountant. Before donating, verify whether the donation platform accepts Solana’s USDC and SOL, and confirm specific nonprofit listings are still accurate.
Using USDC on Solana through Phantom makes international transfers fast, simple, and extremely cheap. Transactions typically settle in under a second and cost less than $0.001 in network fees. This means you can send money across countries almost instantly without worrying about delays, banking hours, or any other intermediaries slowing things down.
Compared to traditional systems, the difference is astounding. A SWIFT bank transfer usually costs around $20-50 per transaction and can take up to 3 business days to arrive (in some countries even longer). Services like Western Union are faster, but they often charge high percentage-based fees and hide additional costs in exchange rate markups. Over time, those costs add up, especially for frequent or smaller transfers.
With Solana USDC, you simply send funds directly from your Phantom wallet to another Phantom wallet or any Solana-compatible wallet. It’s especially useful for people with family, clients, or business relationships across borders who want a faster, cheaper alternative to traditional remittance systems.
One of the fastly growing spending option - Solana Pay - is a real merchant payment protocol built on Solana with an active network of merchants processing payments on-chain. Phantom wallet users can access retailers in categories like apparel, lifestyle products, and Solana-branded merchandise. Solana Pay is used to buy any of the physical goods from their platforms as through the payment integration, merchants accept SOL and USDC directly at checkout. BitPay is also a good option for buying physical goods with crypto as it supports a broader set of merchants offering a wider range of products in their inventory.
The Solana Pay merchant network is expanding, so it's worth checking current merchant listings directly to assess which categories of products are being covered by it.
Phantom's built-in swap, powered by Jupiter aggregator, routes trades across Solana's entire DEX ecosystem to find the best available rate. This means you're never stuck spending only the token you happen to be holding. If a merchant accepts USDC but you're currently holding a Solana-native altcoin, the swap step takes seconds and costs fractions of a cent.
Jupiter's aggregation across DEXs means you're getting competitive rates without doing the legwork of checking individual pools. Before any payment, you simply open Phantom, swap your holdings to the accepted currency, and pay. That's it. This is what makes Phantom a more versatile spending wallet than wallets without a built-in swap.
Phantom users can spend crypto on electronics in two main ways: direct payments to crypto-friendly retailers, or indirect spending through gift cards. The simplest direct route is using Bitcoin where it’s accepted. For example, Newegg allows customers to pay directly with BTC for items like laptops, GPUs, phones, and other hardware. With Phantom’s built-in BTC support, you can swap from SOL or USDC into BTC without leaving the wallet, then complete the payment in one flow.
For retailers that don’t accept crypto directly, gift card platforms like Bitrefill act as a bridge. You can convert SOL or USDC into gift cards for major stores such as Amazon and then use those cards to buy electronics, gadgets, or accessories. This effectively turns crypto into a spendable balance for almost any mainstream electronics retailer, even if they don’t support crypto payments natively.
At the same time, Solana Pay is gradually expanding real-world merchant acceptance, which could make electronics purchases via Phantom wallet even more common over time.
When SOL appreciates significantly, one practical portfolio move is allocating a portion of those gains into BTC or ETH as a longer-term savings strategy. Taking some chips off the table into more established and liquid assets is a discipline move because it locks in part of the gains instead of leaving the entire portfolio exposed to the higher volatility that altcoins are known for.
Phantom now supports BTC and ETH natively alongside Solana, making this a within-wallet allocation via Jupiter swap rather than a trip through a centralized exchange.
Online learning platforms and DeFi-focused courses increasingly accept crypto directly or via a crypto debit card. If you’re looking to put your SOL or USDC yield toward skills development, whether that's blockchain development, design, business, or anything else, your crypto is accepted one way or another.
Where a platform accepts crypto directly, paying via USDC on Solana is seamless. Where it doesn't, the crypto debit card workflow extends to any platform that accepts standard card payment, which covers everything essentially. It's a practical way to redirect token holdings or stablecoin yield toward ongoing professional development rather than converting back to fiat.
Solana's creator economy is one of the more distinctive aspects of the ecosystem. Platforms like Dialect and Metaplex have built tipping and patronage tools natively on Solana, and one can send USDC and SOL directly to content creators, developers, and open source projects building on the network.
This spending category exists specifically because Solana's fees make micropayments and small direct transfers economically viable. On a high-fee chain, sending $2 to a creator you appreciate isn't worth the transaction cost. On Solana, it is. That economics-of-small-transfers advantage is part of what makes the Solana creator economy feel different from what's built on other chains.
Your Phantom wallet is one of the most capable spending setups in crypto. Whether you are looking to use SOL or Solana’s USDC, your holdings are good as gold, since they cover a number of options of real world spending. Out of those, travel is the most enjoyable and worthwhile. Planning a trip through a good web3 platform can be even cheaper than on classical alternatives like Booking.com or Expedia.
Here, CoinBooking stands out as the most direct bridge between your Solana holdings and real-world value. You can book hotels and flights across 2M+ listings in 190+ countries, pay directly in USDC on Solana or SOL, and get below-retail rates without a single fiat conversion step. If you've been sitting on SOL or USDC waiting for a good reason to spend it, a trip is a pretty good place to start.
This article is for educational purposes only. It is a general guide for founders and users navigating the Web3 space. It does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions.If you want to learn more about raising funds or which IDOs to look into, our team is here to help. Feel free to reach out to us on Telegram at any time.
