NFT Marketplace Tensor Announces Massive Airdrop for Traders

Solana NFT marketplace Tensor is grabbing the attention of many traders after it decided to adopt Blur’s approach of rewarding loyal users of its platform.

Tensor rolled out its ‘season 1 airdrop’ yesterday, allowing Solana NFT traders to claim free rewards, which were distributed based on their trading activity on the marketplace. Anyone who traded an NFT on the platform over the last five months was eligible for the airdrop.

Data from the analytics platform Dune shows that on Tuesday, Tensor’s NFT trading volume hit heights it had never seen before. The platform posted $487,000 (23,350 SOL) in trades. In addition, it processed over 2,700 NFT trades that day.

Data gathered by Tiexo indicates that Tensor accounted for roughly 20% of the total Solana NFT trading volume in the past 24 hours. That’s a significant spike, considering the platform has only facilitated about 7% of Solana NFT trading volume in the last 30 days.

Tensor Raises $3 million

On Wednesday, following an increased trading activity fueled by the airdrop, Tensor revealed that it has managed to raise $3 million in a funding round led by venture capital company Placeholder.

Other participating investors include Solana co-founders Raj Gokal and Anatoly Yakovenko, MonkeVentures, and Big Brain Holdings. In addition, prominent NFT trader HGE, who is a co-founder of rival marketplace Hadeswap, also invested in Tensor.

In a long Twitter thread, developers behind Tensor explained that they started raising funds last November when the crypto exchange FTX, which had strong links with the Solana ecosystem, began to collapse.

As a result, the Tensor team said it took a lot of work to convince investors, but fortunately, they found some backers within the NFT space. The developers revealed that many venture capitalists were asking them to leave Solana before they could invest in the platform.

Tensor Plans for Another Airdrop

In a different tweet, Tensor hinted about a season 2 airdrop that would see traders receive rewards based on listing NFTs or bidding on them, along with providing liquidity to the various pools.

In addition, the marketplace said it would soon introduce a points leaderboard that will gamify the trading process.