What is Whales Markets?
Click here to access the Whales Market app and follow along with this guide: Whales Market
Whale Markets is a decentralized platform designed for secure, peer-to-peer trading. It uses smart contracts to enhance security and reduce the risks associated with over-the-counter (OTC) trading, while still maintaining direct P2P (peer-to-peer) transactions.
This guide will go through the various types of markets that we can participate in and how to be a buyer or seller for each of those markets. It’s worth noting that Whales Market is actively expanding their product offerings. As new additions are made, the same philosophy shown below in this guide will carry true; you simply need to identify which market you are trading in, and then proceed with placing or purchasing the orders you desire.
Types of Markets
The first step to using Whales Market is determining which of these markets you are looking to participate in. There are a few distinct markets available through Whales Markets: Pre-market, OTC, and Tokens Market.
Pre-market
This encompasses all token allocations that are pre-TGE (Token Generation Event). This means that a project has announced an airdrop or toke launch coming, but nobody has received their allocations yet. This is useful for participants that know what their token allocation is going to be before TGE occurs, allowing them to distribute some of their allocation before the public trading market is available.
OTC Market
The only difference between OTC and pre-market is if the TGE has taken place. Once a token is officially launched and distributed into wallets, it then enters an OTC market rather than pre-market. Over-the-counter trading is equivalent to most other P2P decentralized markets in which orders are provided and chosen by individual participants rather than an automated orderbook.
Points Market
Points refer to the points system that many platforms, projects, or tools give to users as a form of loyalty-reward system. Points most commonly associated with products in which users need to provide volume or liquidity to earn loyalty points or social platforms in which points are based on referrals and other social engagements. The purpose of trading these points is solely based on the idea that the points will become a ranking method for a future airdrop or token allocation. That makes points market a specific type of pre-market that is more focused on token speculation rather than a confirmed airdrop allocation.
Once you’ve identified the market you are interested in, the first step is to navigate to that market using the selections on the left side of the window, circled in the image below:
Must-Haves and Must-Knows before using Whales Market
- You must know what blockchain the token that you wish to trade resides on. Whales Markets supports many blockchains, but all screenshots and demos in this guide will be using Solana.
- You have to have a wallet for that blockchain and connect it to the Whales Market website. Many of the buy/sell menus require a connected wallet to access.
- Partial and full. These words describe the fill type of orders on Whales Market. They refer to whether the order has to be filled in one-go or if that buyer/seller allows partial purchases/sales. If someone is selling 10 tokens and their order is marked as full, you would have to purchase all 10 tokens. If that same order is marked as partial fill, you are able to buy any quantity of those tokens.
Pre-Market
Taker
Being a taker refers to accepting an offer that somebody else has provided. As a buyer, being a taker means accepting a listing where someone has their tokens for sale. As a seller, being a taker means accepting someone else’s offer to buy your tokens. I much prefer to use the pro version of the dashboard for this portion as it makes viewing the available token offers much easier. You can find the pro version of the dashboard by clicking the button in the bottom-left corner of the window as shown below:
On this dashboard, we will see all of the available pre-market offerings on Whales Market, shown below in the screenshot. When you see the token you wish to buy, click on the particular token of interest.
When you select the token you are interested in, a new window will open showing you the DEX-style orderbook where you can see active sell offers, active buy orders, and if you scroll down you can see the recent transactions for that token.
If you are looking to instantly sell or instantly buy your tokens, then the best option will be the buy or sell listing that is provided at the top of the list. One thing to take note of is the fill type listed as either “full” or “partial” as you will need to take the quantity into account.
Maker
If you are not looking for an instant transaction or none of the current offers appeal to you, then you will want to create your own offer (in other words, be a Maker). We can do that by clicking on the “Create Offer” button at the top right corner of the window.
When we click that button, it will ask us to choose the market we are wishing to create an offer for as well as the blockchain that our token of interest resides on. For my particular example, we are looking at a Pre-Market token on Solana so those are what I will click on for this demo. Once the relevant info is input, click the “Next button”.
The next window that appears will have us input all of our desired details for the offer. You will need to input the following information:
- Whether you want to place a buy order or sell order
- Your desired price for that order (this price is per token!)
- The quantity of tokens that you wish to purchase or sell.
- The token in which you are creating an offer.
- Collateral for the offer.
- Fill Type: Partial of Full (I recommend partial)
Once you have all of those parameters input to your liking, we will click the “Next” button. The next window that appears will simply have us confirm the details of our offer, make sure you review these as the offer will go live after this!
If all of the details are accurate, then all we need to do is click the “Deposit $” button and you will be prompted to sign the transaction in your wallet. Once you’ve done this the offer is live and simply waiting for a taker to accept it!
OTC Market
Taker
Being a taker refers to accepting an offer that somebody else has provided. We can access the existing OTC offers by clicking the “OTC Market” button on the left side of the window as shown in the image below. The landing page will look very similar to the image below, where several OTC offers populate the screen.
If you are looking to find existing OTC offers for your token, use the search bar at the top of the window and type in the token contract address. This is far safer than typing in the name of the token as there can be many fakes created by scammers.
With the token address entered, all of the offers for that token will appear (as I have shown below in my search for the BONK token address). In the top-left corner you will see a ‘
“Buy” and “Sell” button. Simply click the appropriate one if you are looking to buy or sell this token and you can view all of the offers available.
If you find an offer that you want to accept, simply click it and follow the prompts that appear on-screen to complete the purchase or sale.
Maker
If none of these offers fit what you are looking for, then you can create your own offer. To do this, we will click the “Create Offer” button on the left side of the window. And then click “OTC Market” on the window that appears, just as shown below.
On the next window, you will need to select the blockchain that your token of interest is on, as well as if you are looking to buy or sell that token. Click “Next” when those details are input.
This next window that appears is where we will input all of the specific details for our token, starting with the token that we are looking to buy or sell. To do this, click the “Select Token” button shown below.
That will open a new menu that looks like the one below. I strongly encourage you to keep the “Strict” button enabled as I have below. This will prevent many unverified tokens from appearing which will drastically reduce the possibilities to choose a fake or scam token. From here, enter the name of your token of interest or the token address and click on the token you wish to create a buy or sell order for.
That will return us to the window we were at before where we need to finish up a few last details.
- We need to select the token we are looking to exchange for with our offer, likely USDC, USDT, SOL, ETH, etc.
- Choose the Fill Type for this offer. I recommend leaving a partial fill option as this will open you to more buyers/sellers.
- Choose the Privacy option for the offer. If you are using this guide, you likely do not have a private offer setup, so leave this as public.
- Input the quantity of tokens that you are buying or selling and the total price of the transaction.
- Click Next when you have all details input correctly.
The next window that appears will simply have us confirm the details of our offer, make sure you review these as the offer will go live after this! If all of the details are accurate, then all we need to do is click the “Deposit $” button and you will be prompted to sign the transaction in your wallet. Once you’ve done this the offer is live and simply waiting for a taker to accept it!
Points Market
Taker
Being a taker refers to accepting an offer that somebody else has provided. We can access the existing Points Market offers by clicking the “Points Market” button on the left side of the window as shown in the image below. The landing page will look very similar to the image below, where several Points offers populate the screen.
To find existing offers for the points you are interested in, use the navigation bar circled in the image below to filter by only the points you wish to see. Additionally, select if you are looking to ‘Buy’ or ‘Sell’ these points.
If you find an offer that you want to accept, simply click it and follow the prompts that appear on-screen to complete the purchase or sale.
Maker
If none of these offers fit what you are looking for, then you can create your own offer. To do this, we will click the “Create Offer” button on the left side of the window. And then click “Points Market” on the window that appears, just as shown below.
On the next window, you will need to select the network that this points system resides on (this will auto-populate to match the wallet you are signed in with), as well as if you are looking to buy or sell the points. Click “Next” when those details are input.
This next window that appears is where we will input all of the specific details for our points purchase or sale, starting with the points system that we are looking to buy or sell. To do this, click the dropdown menu circled in the image below. If you don’t see the points system you are interested in within this menu, then double check that you have the correct wallet connected that matches the blockchain network for that points system.
Once we have the points that we want to buy/sell identified, we need to complete the remainder of the details in this window. These details include:
- Selecting the token we are looking to exchange for with our offer, likely USDC, USDT, SOL, ETH, etc.
- Choose the Fill Type for this offer. I recommend leaving a partial fill option as this will open you to more buyers/sellers.
- Input the quantity of tokens that you are buying or selling and the total price of the transaction.
- Click Next when you have all details input correctly.
*Note: If you are selling points, you must provide collateral equal to that of your total sale.*
The next window that appears will simply have us confirm the details of our offer, make sure you review these as the offer will go live after this! If all of the details are accurate, then all we need to do is click the “Deposit $” button and you will be prompted to sign the transaction in your wallet. Once you’ve done this the offer is live and simply waiting for a taker to accept it!
If you are selling points, then you have to return and settle your end of the deal once the points are converted into the protocol’s token. If you do not do this then you will forfeit your collateral.
If you are buying points, you will not immediately receive anything if your offer is accepted. You must wait until the points are converted to the protocol’s token for the selling to then provide to you. If they do not settle in time, then you will receive the collateral from the transaction.
