Tensor, a new NFT startup founded by Ilja Moisejevs and Richard Wu, has announced a second round of airdrops after completing its "Season 1 airdrop" earlier this week. The Solana-based NFT marketplace distributed the first batch of rewards in the form of airdrops and loyalties to users who have contributed to the growth of the platform and the Solana ecosystem.
Sharing the news on Twitter, Tensor said the Season 1 reward was shared in proportion based on users' NFT trading activities on Solana for the past six months. Anyone who traded NFTs on Solana-based platforms received an airdrop, although early Tensor users received "25x-50x more rewards."
With the completion of the season one airdrop, Tensor teased that season two will be more lucrative than the previous round. This time, the NFT marketplace will reward trading activity just on its platform instead of the broader Solana ecosystem. Users can qualify for the upcoming airdrop by bidding, listing, and market-making.
Tensor mentioned that the second airdrop would reward users with mystery boxes containing “fun things you might like.” The description for each box holds a clue about its content, while a user’s loyalty score further increases their chances of landing more valuable items.
“Loyalty is defined by % of your listings on Tensor vs. other marketplaces,” Tensor noted. Users with all their NFTs listed on Tensor earn a higher loyalty score than those with listings across competing platforms like Magic Eden.
However, listing NFTs too far from the average point, bidding on poorly-rated collections, and engaging in wash trading on TensorSwap will automatically disqualify users from the airdrop. Users can also provide liquidity to earn rewards, loot boxes, and loyalty packages.
While the company is yet to reveal a date for its second airdrop, the just concluded season attracted many users to its platform. Tensor's NFT trading volume skyrocketed to a new all-time high on Monday.
According to data from the blockchain analytics company Dune, the NFT marketplace executed trades worth 23,351 SOL ($486,000). CoinGecko data also shows that Tensor traded nearly 2,800 NFTs during the period. The trading volume surpassed $50,000, setting a new pace for the Solana-based NFT marketplace like Blur did to Ethereum last month.
Meanwhile, the company announced in separate tweets that it had raised $3 million in a seed round to support Solana-based NFTs. The just-concluded fundraiser was led by venture capital firm Placeholder with participation from other notable institutional and angel investors, including Big Brain Holdings, MonkenVenture, Solana Ventures, and the famous pseudonymous trader HGE, owner of Hadeswap.
Tensor said the investment round started last year after the collapse of FTX, which was indirectly associated with Solana. The company further disclosed that it chose to deploy the funds on Solana because it is convinced the blockchain can onboard billion-sized NFT collections with fully on-chain order books at the speed of light.
Tensor is also optimistic that it will become the base of NFT trading in Solana. The company believes NFTs will emerge as the next trillion-dollar asset class in the coming years.
