Mango is a decentralized exchange built on the Solana blockchain network to give users an easy cross-trading experience.
Mango makes use of the Serum DEX infrastructure to execute its trading activities. Serum provides a permissionless central limit order book that removes the need for an intermediary to execute a trade for them as is the case in centralized financial systems.
Apart from some of the standard features that one expects to see on a decentralized trading tool, Mango Markets offers a lightning fast borrow and lending feature.
Mango Markets on Solana makes it easier for you to borrow funds using your existing crypto as collateral. For example, one can deposit their SOL, then use it to borrow USDC.
By doing this, you can continue to trade on the Solana blockchain without selling your underlying SOL! When you are done trading, simply pay back the USDC loan to regain access to your capital.
If you are not interested in that (you might consider borrowing to be risky), you can just deposit your funds into your Mango account and leave it to earn interest for you. This is a great way to save your money and also earn reasonable yield passively.
Trading on Mango Market
Mango offers the ability to trade in four languages; you can select the one you are most familiar with – English in my case. Click “Save” after your selection.
A modal will appear with a message that summarizes some basic options available on the platform.
The section denoted here is the tab that contains all the features offered by Mango markets.
By clicking on the Account section, a modal will appear with the header “Create Account”. I find that having multiple accounts makes it much easier to keep track of different trading strategies that I am testing.
In the Trade section is the Futures and the Spot. Futures trading should only be done if you already have the basic knowledge of trading, using leverages etc. (else just stick to the good old Spot trading).
This is a view of the SOL-PERP (for Futures trading)
This is for the Spot trading section. Select the pair you want to trade.
I selected the SOL/USDC pair.
If you have deposited into your account, you can choose to borrow funds from the protocol easily. The deposited funds serve as a collateral for you.
Swapping on Mango
Swapping on Mango is just like the regular swapping that takes place on the common Solana DEXes. Just as the tokens being swapped are exchanged in the wallet, swapping on Mango also takes place with the tokens in your wallet and not in your Mango account. This means that you cannot swap tokens that are in your Mango account unless they are withdrawn into the wallet.
Order Types
Order types, just as the name implies is the type of order available on the market to trade with. These orders have different actions and one must be knowledgeable on how they work so as to make right decisions while trading. Some of these order types are common while some are not. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Market
This order type will help you buy or sell an asset for the price it is trading with currently on the market. No need to wait before selling or buying. You can do so immediately since you are willing to trade at the current market price.
Limit
With this Order type, you can buy or sell an asset at a particular price but not lesser. This means you already have a price you won’t exceed while trying to purchase and a price you won’t sell at if it goes lower.
Reduce Only
Immediate or Cancel: Just like its name, once an order is placed and it doesn’t get filled instantly, it is cancelled from the order book.
POST
These types of orders are added to the on-chain order book and queued to serve as the market makers of the trading pair. These orders get to earn in the maker fees received during trade.
Fees
Because there is a need for some necessary accounts to be created on the Mango platform for its users, it costs users 0.035 SOL for this account setup. And for each spot trade that is utilized, it costs 0.025 SOL to create.
MNGO Governance Token
MNGO is the governance token used to vote on proposals inside the Mango Markets DAO.
Whenever there is a proposal that is to be decided upon, holders of the MNGO token are eligible to vote since MNGO gives them the right to vote on any of the issues raised. Each MNGO token counts for one vote.
There are three basic steps to follow so as to participate in the governance system of Mango Markets. These are:
- Deposit your Mango (MNGO) tokens on the governance website: https://dao-beta.mango.markets/dao/MNGO
- Select the proposal and place your vote on it. Please note that the maximum voting period is three days. Once you deposit your MNGO tokens to cast your vote, you should not withdraw until the voting period is over if not, your vote will not count.
MNGO Tokenomics
There are one billion (1,000,000,000) MNGO tokens in circulation. Mango Markets does not have a staking program.
You can generate yield on your MNGO tokens by lending them out on the protocol, although the lending rewards are small compared to what you can earn on Solend.
Referral Program
Mango offers a generous referral program that allows you to earn a cut of the fees generated by your referrals. You must hold 10,000 MNGO in your Solana wallet in order to create your affiliate link.
Affiliates receive 16% of all of the fees generated from people who join through their link. In addition, all referrals enjoy a 4% fee discount simply by signing up under you.
There are not many Solana affiliate programs in existence yet, so it is exciting to see that Mango is taking this route. You can read more about the MNGO referral program here.
Developer Resources
The code for Mango Markets is fully open-source and can be forked by developers who want to build on top of it. You can check out the available resources including APIs on their documentation page.
Mango also hosts a bi-weekly call for developers. Join their Discord server for more information regarding that.
Bug Bounty
If you find a bug, Mango will pay you to report it as long as your report fits their recommended criteria. To submit a bug within Mango Markets, send your detailed assessment in an email to hello@blockworks.foundation.
Conclusion
Mango is a very popular trading tool among Solana users, and for good reason. The protocol continues to introduce new functionality on a consistent basis and has set a very high standard for DeFi programs on Solana to match. We have high hopes for this project and will update this guide as more features are introduced.