Tensor

Tensor is an NFT marketplace on Solana built for people who trade NFTs often. It is the crypto trading venue at tensor.trade, not the TensorFlow software library or the Tensor Art image tool.

You can buy, sell and bid on NFTs from more than 30,000 Solana collections, according to the Tensor docs. Tensor adds trading tools that simple marketplaces lack, such as bids on a whole collection and pools that trade NFTs for you.

The trader who fills an order pays a 2% fee. The trader whose order was waiting pays none. Since a deal announced in November 2025, the Tensor Foundation has run the marketplace, and TNSR token holders govern it.

How Tensor NFT trading works: listings, bids and sweeps

Tensor works like an order book for NFTs. Sellers list items at a price and buyers place bids. A trade happens when one side accepts the other's price. Tensor's AMM guide describes three order types:

• buy or bid;
• sell or list;
• market-make, covered in the AMM section below.

The bids are where Tensor differs from a simple shop window. You can bid on:

• a single NFT;
• any NFT with a certain trait;
• any item in a whole collection.

If you are selling, you can accept the best collection bid at once. You don't have to wait for a buyer to find your listing.

Bulk tools help when you move many items. You can sweep the cheapest several listings in a collection in one go, or list a batch at once.

Shared escrow lets one SOL balance back many bids at the same time. Tensor's shared escrow page explains that a bid stays live while your balance covers it and switches off when it doesn't. That makes your capital go further, with one catch covered in the risk section below.

Tensor AMM pools: market-making NFTs for liquidity providers

Tensor's automated market maker (AMM) lets you set up an order that buys and sells NFTs from a collection for you. Its prices step up or down after each trade. You fund it with SOL, NFTs or both. You earn the gap between buy and sell prices, plus a fee you set.

According to the AMM guide, a market-maker sets a fee from 0% to 25% and the price range where the order trades. Prices move along a bonding curve, a rule that shifts the price after each fill. Tensor's bonding curves page offers two:

• A linear curve moves by a fixed amount of SOL per trade, such as 0.1 SOL.
• An exponential curve moves by a percentage per trade, such as 10%.

Say you run a market-making order on a collection trading at 10 SOL, with a linear 0.1 SOL step. Each time someone sells you an NFT, your next bid drops by 0.1 SOL. Each time someone buys from you, your next asking price rises by 0.1 SOL.

Your profit is the gap between those prices, plus your fee.

Tensor's docs also warn that orders priced far from the collection's floor get little or no activity, so where you set the start price decides whether you trade at all.

Tensor fees and creator royalties

Tensor's fees page lists a 2% taker fee and a 0% maker fee. The taker is whoever accepts an existing order: the buyer who hits a listing, or the seller who accepts a bid. The maker is the person whose order was waiting.

Royalties come on top and are always paid by the taker. Tensor handles them in two ways, depending on the collection:

• Enforced royalties are mandatory. A buyer pays the full rate on a purchase; a seller who accepts a bid receives the bid minus royalties.
• Optional royalties let the taker choose to pay none, half or all of the collection's rate.

So the true cost of a trade depends on the collection. Check its royalty setting before you buy or accept a bid.

Tensor Price Lock: NFT options for going long or short

Price Lock is a Tensor product that works like an option on an NFT. You pay up front to lock a buy or sell price for a fixed period, and you profit if the market moves your way. Tensor introduced it in January 2024, as NiftyNoon reported at the time.

SolanaFloor described the launch terms. A lock lasts seven days. Locking a buy price is a bet that the NFT will rise above it; locking a sell price is a bet it will fall below.

The other side funds the lock with SOL or NFTs and receives a yield up front. SolanaFloor reported more than 10,000 SOL of volume in the first 12 hours.

Price Lock gives you leverage: a small payment controls exposure to a much larger price move. That cuts both ways, so it suits traders who already understand options more than casual collectors.

Tensor launchpad, Creator Portal and compressed NFTs

Creators use Tensor to launch and manage NFT collections. Tensor's docs describe a hub to manage a collection and a launchpad. The launchpad supports several NFT types, including compressed NFTs.

A compressed NFT (cNFT) keeps its record of who owns it in a small shared data store on chain. That makes each one far cheaper to mint than a standard NFT, so a project can issue very large collections. Tensor trades them next to standard NFTs.

Tensor lists every Solana collection it finds on chain by itself. In the Creator Portal, a team can:

• claim and update a collection's page;
• verify a new collection;
• apply for a creator page.

Tensor API, SDK and open-source protocols

Traders and market-makers can apply for access to Tensor's API through a form in its API and SDK docs. Public SDKs cover both the standard and compressed marketplaces.

The core programs are open source under the Apache-2.0 licence on the Tensor Foundation GitHub. The Foundation's protocols page lists five on-chain programs:

• the marketplace;
• the AMM;
• shared escrow;
• the collection whitelist;
• a fee program.

Its grants programme funds teams that build on these programs. Grants are paid out as each milestone is met.

TNSR token: supply, airdrop and governance

TNSR is Tensor's voting token. Holders vote on how the protocol is run, from fee settings to spending. TNSR went live on 8 April 2024, The Block reported. The first airdrop gave 12.5% of the supply to Tensorian holders and traders who had earned Treasure Boxes in Tensor's reward seasons.

The Tensor Foundation tokenomics set a fixed supply of 1 billion TNSR:

The mint address is below. You can follow the token on our TNSR token page.

TNSRxcUxoT9xBG3de7PiJyTDYu7kskLqcpddxnEJAS6

Fees flow to a treasury that TNSR holders control. The Foundation's value accrual page states that 100% of fees from the main Tensor Trade marketplace and 50% of fees from the Tensor protocols go to that treasury.

How Tensor DAO voting works

The governance docs set a three-step process:

1. A proposal is discussed on the Tensor DAO forum for at least 14 days.
2. TNSR holders vote on Realms for three days, followed by a two-day cool-off when votes can only switch to "no". It takes 250,000 TNSR to create a proposal, and a proposal passes with at least 10 million TNSR voting yes and more yes than no votes.
3. A seven-member Security Council reviews the result. Four of the seven must agree to pass or veto it, and a veto must be explained within two weeks.

Tensor Foundation and the Coinbase Vector.fun deal

The Tensor Foundation has run the Tensor marketplace since a deal announced on 21 November 2025. Tensor Labs, the firm that built Tensor, sold its memecoin trading app Vector to Coinbase cbBTC$70,820.03-3.5%. In the same deal, the marketplace and the Tensorians NFTs went to the Foundation.

The Block reported the terms that matter to you as a Tensor user or TNSR holder:

• All marketplace fees now go to the TNSR treasury, up from half.
• The Foundation would burn 21.6% of the founder and Labs tokens that had not yet vested.
• Co-founders Richard Wu and Ilja Moisejevs locked their vested tokens again for three more years. Both stay on the Security Council.
• The Foundation and TNSR stay separate from Coinbase.

The founders and 11 Vector.fun staff joined Coinbase. In August 2026 that team shipped Coinbase's first production Solana smart contract, a DEX aggregator.

Is Tensor right for you? Traders, flippers and market-makers

Tensor suits people who trade Solana NFTs often and want proper trading tools. It is built for you if you:

• flip NFTs priced near a collection's floor;
• buy many NFTs from a collection at once;
• want to sell instantly into a collection bid.

It also suits liquidity providers who are comfortable with market-making. Running an AMM order can earn fees, but it ties up SOL and NFTs in collections that can fall in value.

It suits you less if you buy one NFT now and then, or collect on other chains. The interface is dense, and Tensor only covers Solana. Keep two costs in mind when you trade as a taker: the 2% fee and any royalty the collection enforces.

Is Tensor safe? Audits, escrow and governance risks

Tensor has run since 2022, and two security firms have checked its code. The Foundation's audits page says OtterSec and Neodyme audited the Tensor protocols. It gives no dates or versions, and the reports are shared on request. Audited code can still have bugs.

Tensor's own risk page for liquidity providers names three risks:

• Price swings: your AMM order can sell below the peak and do worse than if you had held.
• Hacks: funds could be lost if the code is hacked or drained.
• Badly set orders: an order priced far from the floor may barely trade.

Shared escrow has its own warning. Tensor's docs say anyone can switch your shared-escrow bids back on, not only you. So old bids you forgot can come back to life when you add SOL. Check your open bids before you deposit.

Changes to the protocol need a TNSR vote and then Security Council sign-off. Each wallet's vote counts in proportion to the TNSR it holds, so large holders carry more weight.

Tensor vs Magic Eden and other Solana NFT marketplaces

Tensor is the better fit for active Solana NFT traders who want tools to bid and make markets. Magic Eden ME$0.042-0.3% is the other long-running Solana NFT marketplace. Both list the big Solana collections. The choice comes down to tools and who runs the app.

Magic Eden used to cover several chains. In early 2026 it shut its Bitcoin and Ethereum-style markets and its wallet, Decrypt reported. It kept its Solana marketplace. The firm now also puts its weight on Dicey, a crypto casino and sports betting site.

If you also hold NFTs on other chains, two big multi-chain apps came back to Solana in 2026. Rarible opened its Solana marketplace on 6 August 2026. OpenSea brought back Solana NFT trading on 31 August 2026, with collections such as Mad Lads and Claynosaurz.

If you want deep trading tools for Solana NFTs, Tensor fits. If you want one app for NFTs on many chains, OpenSea or Rarible saves you from switching.

Tensor history: founders, funding and market share

Richard Wu and Ilja Moisejevs opened Tensor to the public in July 2022, after a private beta that June. In March 2023 it raised $3 million in a round led by Placeholder. Solana Ventures and Solana's co-founders also took part, according to The Block.

Tensor grew fast. In one week in May 2023 it passed Magic Eden's share of Solana NFT trading for the first time, TechCrunch reported.

By March 2024, The Block said Tensor handled more than 70% of Solana NFT trading over the past 90 days. That count left out wash trades, where traders buy from themselves to fake volume.

Tensor gave traders points in reward seasons, which led to the TNSR airdrop. In August 2023 it released Tensorians, its own NFT collection of 10,000 pieces, CoinMarketCap Academy noted.

At Breakpoint 2024, Tensor said it would open its code and pay developers who build on it. Our notes on Richard Wu's keynote cover that plan. For why the founders backed compressed NFTs early, read our notes on their Lightspeed interview.