Without a doubt, Tensor is one of the most exciting projects to come out in the Solana NFT space in recent times. In this article, we are doing a deep dive into some of the advancements their team is bringing to the space.
If you’re the “in it for the tech” – you’re going to LOVE Tensor. So grab a cup of coffee, get hydrated, and let’s jump into todays Solana project review.
Main Features
Tensor is a Solana-based NFT infrastructural service. The team launched last February to provide a paradigm shift in the way NFTs are traded.
Tensor is not a regular NFT marketplace. Most NFT marketplaces are used to serve the needs of retail users. As such, they tend not to cater for those who want more advanced trading tools.
Imagine if you could make multiple transactions at once, across eight of the most used marketplaces on Solana. Stop imagining. Just use Tensor ASAP.
Founded by a former software engineer who previously worked at Two Sigma and Google, along with a former analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Tensor is equipped with an exceptional team of people capable of delivering the best tool for the Web3 ecosystem.
This is evident in their two-time hackathon wins in the Solana ecosystem (third place in the Solana Riptide Hackathon and second place during the last Solana Summer Camp hackathon).
Tensor Aggregator
Tensor’s NFT aggregation system collects NFTs across almost all the marketplaces on Solana. With this tool, you have access to trade NFTs listed on any supported platform without having to switch applications.
Let’s jump into some of Tensor’s core features and talk about why they are so powerful.
Using Tensor Aggregator
Head over to tensor.trade to access the main dashboard. You can easily search for your favorite NFTs in the search panel. In this example, we will be using DeGods!
Tensor includes TradingView support for Solana NFTs. This alone makes it super easy to do chart analysis.
This is one of the major things that professional traders need for effective trading. At the right side of the page, a list of recent activities on the collection is shown.
Buying an NFT
To buy an NFT, simply select buy and click the “SWEEP” button.
To buy with your preferred amount, click on the BID button and choose the amount you are willing to pay for the NFT.
In the below example, I’m trying to buy 3 Solamander NFTs with 0.1 SOL. Don’t worry if you don’t know about the collection, not everyone can be an OG ????).
You can use the “Cancel Bid” feature to terminate all your bids on an NFT collection.
If you have a DeGod to sell (unlike me, lucky bastard), click on Sell, input the price you are willing to sell it. Then you simply wait a second and confirm the transaction.
The “Sell Now” feature is made possible by the Tensor AMM tool called TensorSwap.
Let’s talk a bit about TensorSwap and what makes it so special.
TensorSwap
TensorSwap is one of the major tools developed by Tensor. In essence, TensorSwap is an NFT Automatic Market Maker (AMM) designed to make NFT trading as simple as possible.
What are some of the things we can do with the TensorSwap NFT tool?
Using TensorSwap
TensorSwap is a concentrated liquidity AMM. This type of AMM is efficient in helping liquidity providers earn money.
By Market-Making on TensorSwap, you are able to specify the price range you would like to provide liquidity for as regarding the NFT collection.
If the price of the NFT is within that range, your liquidity provided will be used to facilitate the trade. Additionally, you can choose your own fee (0-25%) when you create a market order.
There are three major things that can be done in this app – Buy, Sell and Market-Make. By selecting the ACTIVITIES and BIDS tab, you will see a list of all transactions that have occurred on the NFT collection and the prices of the BIDS orders.
These features in particular can make all the difference in executing a successful trading strategy.
Buying an NFT
In the “Items” section, click on an NFT collection (you can also search if it is not in the homepage), choose the number of NFTs you want to acquire and select BUY.
SELL NFT
To sell an NFT, click on the “SELL” button and input the numbers to sell and approve the transaction.
Market-Making
To get started with this, click on the Market-Make button to create a market. Input the number of NFTs to buy or sell in the collection.
The “Starting Price” is the price you start selling the first of your NFTs.
The second thing to note is the “Change By” (delta). This is the change you desire in the price to sell your next NFT.
What this means is that if you bought Turtles NFTs for 9 SOL and your delta is 1 SOL, it means that if someone wants to buy it from you, it would cost them 10 SOL as Starting Price.
If someone then sells another one to you at 9 SOL, then your next buying price would reduce to 8 SOL and the selling price would become 9 SOL. Pretty awesome, right?
Tensor charges a 0.1% fee for providing this, and keep in mind that is only when you sell!
Reward System
Tensor is currently running a rewards program for early traders on the platform. By providing liquidity on Tensor or by actively trading, you earn points.
Other ways through which you can earn points are by inviting new users, setting up orders etc. Those with Tensor reward points might receive $TNSR token and get an allocated spot for their upcoming NFT mint.
Potential Risks
One of the major risks that exists in decentralized systems like Tensor is hacking. No platform is hundred percent safe to use even though they have undergone thorough app auditing.
Additionally, another risk is impermanent loss. Just as it exists in the DeFi settings, impermanent loss might not guarantee that you would make profit by market-making for NFT collections.
Conclusion
Aggregating trades from eight marketplaces into one application makes life easier for both normal users and professional traders. With the additional sophisticated features that enables a trader to do things like collection-wide bid, multiple sweeping at once etc, Tensor is a go-to platform for trading NFTs. With the innovative AMM tool, people can now sell NFTs instantly instead of waiting for long or having to undercut listings to get their NFTs sold fast.