Tensor has become the dominant NFT marketplace on Solana for active traders. While Magic Eden remains popular for casual buyers, Tensor's trading-oriented interface — with real-time order books, AMM pools, and portfolio analytics — has made it the platform of choice for anyone treating NFT trading seriously.
This guide covers everything from your first purchase to advanced features like automated market making and collection-wide bidding.
Getting Started with Tensor
Connecting Your Wallet
To use Tensor, you need a Solana wallet with SOL for transactions:
- Navigate to tensor.trade
- Click "Connect Wallet" in the top right
- Select your wallet (Phantom and Solflare are the most popular)
- Approve the connection in your wallet
Tensor doesn't require an account or sign-up. Your wallet is your identity, and all trading happens on-chain.
Understanding the Interface
Tensor's interface resembles a financial trading terminal more than a traditional NFT marketplace:
- Collections page: Browse and search NFT collections, sorted by volume, floor price, or listing count
- Collection detail: The main trading view for each collection — listings, bids, activity, and analytics
- Portfolio: Your NFT holdings with unrealized P&L, floor value, and activity history
- Activity feed: Real-time stream of sales, listings, and bids across the platform
The layout is information-dense by design. Tensor assumes you want data, not just pretty pictures.
Buying NFTs on Tensor
Method 1: Buy at Floor Price
The simplest way to buy — purchase the cheapest available NFT in a collection:
- Navigate to the collection page
- The listings are sorted by price (lowest first)
- Click "Buy" on the listing you want
- Approve the transaction in your wallet
Tip: Check the trait breakdown before buying the absolute floor. Sometimes spending 5-10% more gets you significantly rarer traits. Tensor shows trait rarity percentages inline.
Method 2: Place a Collection Bid
If you don't want to pay the current floor price, place a bid:
- On the collection page, click "Bid"
- Enter your bid price (in SOL)
- Set the number of NFTs you want to buy at this price
- Approve the transaction
Your bid sits in the order book until a seller accepts it or you cancel. You can bid below the floor and wait for someone to sell into your bid.
Important: When you place a bid, your SOL is locked in the bid contract. It's not actually debited until someone fills the bid. You can cancel unfilled bids to get your SOL back.
Method 3: Trait-Specific Bids
Tensor allows bidding on specific traits within a collection:
- Open the collection's bid interface
- Select "Trait Bid"
- Choose the trait category (e.g., "Background") and value (e.g., "Gold")
- Set your price and quantity
This lets you target specific attributes without buying random floor NFTs. It's particularly useful for collections where certain traits carry significant premium.
Selling NFTs on Tensor
Listing for Sale
- Go to your Portfolio or find the NFT in the collection view
- Click "List"
- Set your asking price
- Choose the listing duration (or indefinite)
- Approve the transaction
Your NFT remains in your wallet — Tensor uses an on-chain escrow-free listing mechanism where possible, meaning you retain custody until the sale executes.
Accepting a Bid
If there are active bids on the collection:
- Go to the collection page and view the bid order book
- If the highest bid meets your price, click "Sell into Bid"
- Select which of your NFTs to sell
- Approve the transaction
Selling into bids is often faster than listing and waiting for a buyer, especially in slower markets.
Instant Sell
Tensor shows an "Instant Sell" price for most NFTs — the highest active bid you can immediately sell into. This is useful when you want liquidity fast without setting a price and waiting.
Tensor AMM Pools
Tensor's AMM (Automated Market Maker) pools are one of its most distinctive features. They let you provide liquidity for NFT trading, similar to how AMM pools work for fungible tokens on DEXs.
How NFT AMM Works
An AMM pool is a two-sided market: one side holds SOL and the other holds NFTs. The pool automatically buys and sells NFTs according to a bonding curve.
Pool types:
- Buy pool: You deposit SOL. The pool automatically buys NFTs from sellers at prices along your curve. Useful if you want to accumulate NFTs below a certain price.
- Sell pool: You deposit NFTs. The pool automatically sells them as buyers hit your prices. Useful for liquidating a position gradually.
- Two-sided pool: You deposit both SOL and NFTs. The pool buys and sells, earning the spread. This is true market making.
Creating a Pool
- Navigate to the collection page
- Click "Create Pool"
- Choose pool type (buy, sell, or two-sided)
- Set your starting price
- Choose a bonding curve (linear or exponential) and the delta (how much the price changes per trade)
- Deposit your SOL and/or NFTs
- Deploy the pool
Example configuration:
- Starting price: 2 SOL
- Curve: Linear
- Delta: 0.1 SOL
- Direction: Two-sided
This pool would buy NFTs starting at 2 SOL (then 1.9, 1.8, etc.) and sell starting at 2.1 SOL (then 2.2, 2.3, etc.). Each trade moves the price by 0.1 SOL.
Pool Strategy Considerations
- Wide spreads earn more per trade but fill less often
- Narrow spreads fill more frequently but with thinner margins
- Linear curves are predictable and easier to manage
- Exponential curves are better for volatile collections where price can move significantly
AMM pools are an advanced feature. Start with a small amount to understand the mechanics before committing significant capital.
Portfolio Management
Tensor's portfolio view provides analytics that most NFT platforms lack:
Key Metrics
- Total portfolio value: Sum of your NFTs at current floor prices
- Unrealized P&L: How much profit or loss you'd have if you sold everything at floor
- Cost basis tracking: Tensor tracks what you paid for each NFT (if purchased on Tensor)
- Floor change: How collection floor prices have moved since you bought
Managing Positions
The portfolio view lets you quickly:
- List multiple NFTs at once (bulk listing)
- Delist all listings (if you change your mind)
- See which NFTs are listed vs unlisted
- Track bid activity on your holdings
Advanced Trading Features
Order Book View
Tensor displays a traditional order book for each collection:
- Bids (buy orders) on one side, sorted highest to lowest
- Listings (sell orders) on the other, sorted lowest to highest
- Spread: The gap between the highest bid and lowest listing
A tight spread (small gap) indicates high liquidity and active trading. A wide spread suggests illiquidity — be cautious about entering positions in collections with wide spreads.
Collection Analytics
For each collection, Tensor shows:
- Volume: 1h, 6h, 24h, 7d, and 30d trading volume
- Floor price chart: Historical floor price with candlestick-style visualization
- Holder distribution: How concentrated ownership is
- Listing rate: What percentage of the supply is listed (high listing rates can indicate sell pressure)
- Sales history: Recent sales with prices and buyer/seller addresses
Compressed NFTs
Tensor supports compressed NFTs (cNFTs), which are significantly cheaper to mint and trade. The trading experience is largely the same, but transaction costs are lower. Compressed NFTs use Solana's state compression technology and are fully supported across Tensor's features.
The two platforms serve different audiences:
| Feature | Tensor | Magic Eden |
|---|
| Target user | Active traders | Casual collectors |
| Interface | Data-heavy, trading terminal | Visual, marketplace-style |
| AMM pools | Yes | Limited |
| Order book | Yes, real-time | Basic |
| Analytics | Built-in, detailed | Basic |
| Bid types | Collection, trait, single | Collection, single |
| Multi-chain | Solana-focused | Multi-chain |
| Rewards | TNSR token for trading | ME rewards program |
Use Tensor if you trade NFTs actively, care about P&L tracking, or want AMM functionality.
Use Magic Eden if you're browsing casually, want a simpler interface, or trade across multiple chains.
Many serious NFT traders use both — Magic Eden for discovery and Tensor for execution.
Trading Strategies on Tensor
Floor Sweeping
Buying multiple NFTs at or near the floor price to accumulate a position. Tensor's bulk buy feature makes this efficient. The strategy works in bull markets where floor prices trend up, but you're exposed to the full downside if sentiment shifts.
Placing bids just above the current highest bid and waiting for desperate sellers to sell into them. This works in bear markets or low-activity periods when sellers need to exit quickly. The key is patience.
Some collections have traits that are undervalued relative to their rarity. Use Tensor's trait data to identify NFTs with rare traits trading near the floor price, buy them, and relist at a premium reflecting the trait's actual value.
AMM Market Making
Running a two-sided AMM pool to profit from the bid-ask spread. This requires understanding the collection's volatility and trading volume. It works best on high-volume collections where the pool fills frequently.
Fees on Tensor
- Taker fee: 1.5% (paid by the buyer or seller who fills an order)
- Maker fee: 0% (placing bids or listings is free, not counting the Solana transaction fee)
- Royalties: Optional on most collections. Tensor shows whether royalties are enforced.
- AMM pool fees: You set your own spread, which functions as your fee
The taker fee on Tensor is competitive with other Solana NFT marketplaces.
Tips for New Tensor Users
- Start on the collection page: Spend time reading the analytics before buying. Volume, holder count, and listing rate tell you a lot about a collection's health.
- Use bids, not market buys: Placing bids below floor is almost always better than buying listings, unless you need a specific NFT immediately.
- Track your P&L: Tensor's portfolio view is there for a reason. Know your cost basis and set clear targets.
- Understand liquidity: Before buying, check the bid depth. If there are no bids within 30% of floor, you might struggle to sell when you need to.
- Start small with AMM: If you want to try market making, start with a small pool on a high-volume collection to learn the mechanics.
Final Thoughts
Tensor has raised the bar for what an NFT marketplace can be. Its trading-oriented features — order books, AMM pools, portfolio analytics, and trait-specific bidding — provide tools that were previously only available in traditional financial markets.
The learning curve is steeper than casual marketplaces, but the payoff is better execution, more data for decision-making, and features like AMM pools that create new ways to participate in NFT markets.
Whether you're flipping memecoins-turned-NFT-collections or building long-term positions in blue-chip Solana art, Tensor's toolset supports serious trading strategies.
For more on Solana NFTs, check out our NFT Tools category and our guide on compressed NFTs on Solana.
FAQ
Do I need TNSR tokens to use Tensor?
No, TNSR is Tensor's governance and rewards token, but it's not required to use the platform. You earn TNSR by trading on Tensor (trading rewards), and holding TNSR may provide fee discounts and governance voting power, but all trading features are available without it.
Is it safe to leave bids open on Tensor?
Yes, bids are secured by on-chain smart contracts. Your SOL is locked in the bid contract and can only be released to a seller who fills your bid or back to you when you cancel. You're not at risk of losing funds to a malicious seller. However, remember that open bids can be filled at any time — don't bid more than you're willing to spend.
Can I trade NFTs on Tensor using a mobile wallet?
Tensor's website works in mobile browsers, and you can connect mobile wallets like Phantom. However, the desktop experience is significantly better given Tensor's data-heavy interface. For quick buys or sells, mobile works fine. For analysis and strategy, use desktop.
How does Tensor handle royalties?
Royalties on Tensor are optional for most collections (traders can choose whether to pay them). Some collections use enforced royalties through Metaplex's royalty enforcement standard, in which case the royalty is mandatory. Tensor clearly indicates whether royalties are enforced or optional on each collection page.
