Tensor (TNSR): Revolutionizing Solana's NFT Trading Infrastructure

Tensor, an NFT marketplace built on Solana (SOL), created quite a buzz after the Tensor Foundation announced that rewards worth over $200 million for its season one, two and three airdrops were available for claim.

The project also launched its governance token, TNSR, which generated over $640 million in trading volume within seven hours or so of its launch.

Such success is synonymous with the incredible performance of various projects within the Solana ecosystem, especially meme coins that have raked in millions of dollars in trading volume upon launch.

So, what’s the hype around Tensor, and what does it bring to the crypto space?

Let’s find out.

Key Takeaways:

• Tensor is now the second largest NFT marketplace on Solana, with over 30,000 collections and innovative features such as Price Lock, which allows you to long/short NFT prices.

• The project has borrowed from Ethereum's Blur model, where most of its tokens have been allocated to airdrops.

• Tensor Foundation has also launched the TNSR governance token, which lets you vote on proposals via the Tensor DAO.

What Is Tensor?

Tensor is an on-chain marketplace built on Solana whose traders and creators can buy, sell and trade NFTs and inscriptions quickly and cost-efficiently. Tensor is the second largest Solana NFT marketplace after Magic Eden.

NFT enthusiasts can easily and conveniently mint NFTs and manage their assets with Tensor’s innovative platform. Tensor has adopted a similar rewards model as Blur on Ethereum (ETH), whereby users receive tokens distributed through airdrops.

Launched in July 2022, Tensor was created to offer traders deep liquidity and swift transactions for NFT trading, along with the opportunity to earn rewards.

Airdrops, Royalties and More

The project carried out its first season of airdrops in September 2022, followed by a second season in March 2023, attracting a considerable number of participants. During the second season, activity on the platform briefly surpassed that of Magic Eden, as users increased activity while targeting the rewards.

NFT creators can also use the platform to add or remove NFT mints, and even to change the descriptions of the NFTs they’ve created. The platform also has a launchpad for Solana NFTs, such as pNFTs and compressed NFTs.

Tensor supports its creators through enforced royalties, whereby the buyer (taker) pays the royalties, a marketplace fee and the listed price. However, a collection can include optional royalties so the buyer can choose the rate of royalty they wish to pay.

Tensor has also launched the Tensorians NFT collection, which consists of 10,000 NFTs that target Tensor’s die-hard community. By becoming a Tensorian NFT holder, you unlock various benefits, such as staking, becoming part of the Tensor community, and receiving rewards and exclusive merchandise. 

Tensor Key Features

Following are the key features that are part of building the NFT infrastructure on Tensor.

Tensor AMM 

Tensor AMM (also known as TensorSwap) is Tensor’s automated NFT marketplace, where trading NFTs is automated and has advanced order types. Think of it as an automated market maker (AMM), like those used in DeFi, but for NFTs instead of fungible tokens.

Unlike traditional NFT marketplaces, such as Magic Eden or OpenSea, TensorSwap allows you to get paid. You can configure your maker fees and earn rewards for activities on the platform, especially setting orders. Best of all, you get to keep all the fees from your completed market orders. Additionally, TensorSwap helps to auto-manage your NFT portfolio by making sure you buy low and sell high in order to counteract emotionally charged trading.

Tensor Price Lock

Tensor Price Lock is an innovative feature that lets you long or short NFT prices by locking them in for seven days. When using this feature, you can be a taker (the one who buys a price lock) or a maker (the one who funds the price lock). Introduced on Jan 22, 2024, this feature allows those who fund price locks (in a similar way as liquidity providers in DeFi) to earn Tensor rewards from their NFTs.

Tensor Shared Escrow

Shared escrow is an innovative feature on Tensor that provides you with a capital-efficient way to bid for NFTs. You can place multiple bids, such as collection bids and trait bids, using the same pool of SOL tokens.

In order for the bid to remain fillable, you need to ensure that it’s less than or equal to the balance available on your shared escrow account. You can also activate purchase caps to set limits to the number of NFTs a particular order buys, protecting your shared escrow balance from being depleted.

YOLO Buy

YOLO Buy is a feature that lets you bid on your favorite NFT by placing a nonrefundable fee, which is a percentage of the listed fee. By placing more bids, you stand a better chance of winning the NFT, with up to 75% odds. The winner is determined through a free spin, whereby even those who lose the bid receive Tensor rewards. When an NFT is purchased through YOLO Buy, the maker (person who listed the NFT) receives 1.5% more from the purchase.

What Is TNSR?

TNSR is Tensor's governance token, used to empower the community that manages key protocols on the platform. By holding TNSR, you can vote on various proposals, including those in the Tensor DAO that governs the proposal process. As a TNSR token holder, you also receive discounts on the platform, such as fees reduced by 25% if you list an NFT using TNSR.

TNSR has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. As with BLUR’s tokenomics, most of its total supply has been reserved for the community to power the airdrops program. The TNSR token allocation is as shown below:

Where to Buy Tensor

You can buy Tensor on Bybit through its Spot trading platform as a TNSR/USDT Spot trading pair, or on Bybit’s Derivatives platform as a USDT Perpetual contract (TNSRUSDT).

Tensor Crypto (TNSR) Price Prediction

As of May 3, 2024, TNSR’s price was $0.86, a 61.3% drop from its ATH of $2.23 on Apr 8, 2024, and an 15.8% increase from its ATL of $0.74 on May 1, 2024.

Price prediction experts are quite bullish on the future for TNSR. According to CoinCodex, TNSR’s price could hit $4.07 in 2025, though it sees a slight reduction to a high of $3.51 in 2030. Price experts on DigitalCoinPrice are cautiously bullish on TNSR, believing the token will hit $$2.17 in 2025 and increase to $6.34 by 2030.

While these price predictions appear bullish, they aren’t a guarantee of TNSR’s future price. We highly recommend you do your own research before investing in Tensor or any other altcoins.

Closing Thoughts

Tensor has quickly become the second-largest NFT marketplace on Solana through its innovative approach of using blockchain technology to trade NFTs, and its community-focused model of rewarding members through airdrops.

Its innovative features, such as Price Locks and the TensorSwap AMM, could be game changers for the way NFTs are traded. As more liquidity continues to flow back into Solana, Tensor will be among the top projects to watch.

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