This is a guide on how to buy TORN token from Tornado Cash. Tornado is a privacy and anonymity protocol on Ethereum. It helps users with this extra layer of privacy using a trustless mixer, with denominations of 0.1 ETH, 1 ETH, 10 ETH, and 100 ETH. It also works for ERC20 tokens like USDC, DAI, and USDT.
Tornado Cash has been in operation for a while now and has proven its effectiveness in real-world adversarial scenarios. To that end, the protocol has come up with its own token TORN. This is currently a governance-only token but it is not hard to see how it can become a value capture token via fees. The users of Tornado would not mind paying some fees for peace of mind and privacy.
TORN’s tokenomics is well thought out and the inflation schedule is very gradual with no bumpy lockups expiring. In addition, there are no pesky VCs in TORN’s allocation ready to dump on retail as soon as possible and bring down its value.
The allocation of TORN has been very fair, providing TORN to early users of the Tornado protocol and using TORN as an incentive mechanism to increase the number of users and total value locked (TVL) in the protocol. This is essential to the success of TORN and Tornado since the larger the anonymity set, the better it is for the users.
How to Buy TORN
If you want to buy TORN, the simplest way currently is through CowSwap. The reason for this is that CowSwap aggregates liquidity across multiple DeFi exchanges and most importantly, you won’t be affected by MEV sandwich attacks. Long and short of it – you will get the best execution price via CowSwap than directly sending your transaction via say Uniswap, Sushi, Curve, or Balancer. Use this especially if you have larger orders to buy or sell.
Another good way is to buy TORN on 1inch.
1inch has both its own liquidity pool for TORN/ETH but is also an aggregator. This means it will guarantee you a lower price to buy TORN than directly going to other DEXes like Uniswap. Here is the Uniswap pool for reference.
1inch is able to provide fairly sophisticated routes for your order, and even split it up into various protocols and DEXes to bring you the best price. Here’s an example going from YFI to TORN which combines 4 DEXes and protocols – Uniswap, Sushiswap, Balancer, and 1inch.
1inch also currently has a liquidity provider (LP) incentive which has increased the pool size. See the next section to learn more about this if you want to participate.
Note that DEX trades can take up decent gas, so if you are trading small amounts, it is better to trade on Binance instead. We don’t usually recommend CEXes but these gas prices are unusually unprofitable for anyone trading < 100 ETH batches.
How to Earn 1inch Tokens by Staking TORN/ETH (currently inactive)
1inch has a limited time liquidity providing incentive for TORN. This is a great way for you to earn some 1inch tokens while also earning liquidity provider fees on 1inch.
To access this, go to 1inch > DAO > Farming and select the ETH/TORN pair. The current APY is 200%. Remember that you take on impermanent loss risk by being an LP.
To become an LP, first buy TORN via 1inch, then add liquidity to the TORN/ETH LP pair on 1inch.
You can read the official 1inch announcement here.
How to Farm TORN
You can also farm TORN instead of buying TORN from an exchange. This is a long-term play since the amount of TORN that you earn depends on the time you are staked. However, this is good because TORN is gradually released into the market.
The mechanics are a bit complicated due to privacy considerations. You get AP tokens that you can convert on a special Balancer pool into TORN after you withdraw a note. Also, always check the gas prices since they can take up a significant amount of ETH for Tornado and thus reduce profitability.
You can read the TORN farming details here.