Raydium is the foundational AMM and DEX on Solana, launched in February 2021. It combines AMM liquidity pools (constant product model) with concentrated liquidity markets and direct integration with Solana’s central limit order book (OpenBook/Serum). Raydium is best known as the graduation destination for Pump.fun tokens — when a meme coin reaches the $69k market cap threshold on Pump.fun, its liquidity migrates to a Raydium pool. This integration between Pump.fun and Raydium positioned Raydium at the center of Solana’s meme coin trading ecosystem in 2024.
Products
The protocol’s products are described below.
Standard AMM Pools
- Any user can provide liquidity and earn 0.25% swap fees
- LP tokens represent share of the pool
- Subject to impermanent loss
- Both bonded Pump.fun meme coins and regular tokens use this format
Concentrated Liquidity Markets (CLMM)
- LPs specify price ranges for capital deployment
- Capital is more efficient (earns more fees per dollar) within the specified range
- Used by major pairs: SOL/USDC, SOL/USDT, RAY/SOL
Constant Product vs. CLMM pools
Pump.fun Integration
The most significant driver of Raydium volume in 2024:
- Pump.fun uses Raydium as its graduation target (previously exclusively Raydium; alternatives emerged in 2024)
- At peak meme coin activity, Raydium processed $2-5B daily volume from graduated Pump.fun tokens
- Raydium earned tens of millions in fees from graduated token trading
Impact on Raydium metrics:
- TVL: $800M-$2B+ depending on meme market conditions
- Daily volume: #1 on Solana (and often top-5 globally across all chains) during peak meme periods
RAY Token
- Utility: Staking for fee sharing, governance (limited), pool authority
- Staking: RAY can be staked to earn a portion of swap fees
- Emission: Historical farming rewards have decreased; current focus on fee revenue model
- Distribution: RAY had a relatively fair launch (no VC allocation disclosed) but team/treasury allocation existed
LaunchLab (formerly AcceleRaytor)
Raydium’s token launch platform:
- Permissioned launches (IDO format) for vetted projects
- Community raise pools and community pools
- Similar to Jupiter’s LFG Launchpad; competes for quality Solana projects
Farming and Yield
Standard Farming:
Raydium offers double-dip opportunities: earn LP fees + additional RAY (or partner token) rewards for providing liquidity to incentivized pools.
Fusion Pools:
Partner projects deposit their own tokens as additional incentives for LPs in their pool. Raydium earns fee income; partner gets deep liquidity; LPs earn multiple reward streams.
OpenBook Integration
Unlike pure AMMs, Raydium can route orders through OpenBook (formerly Serum) — Solana’s central limit order book:
- Arbitrage bots continuously move liquidity between Raydium pools and OpenBook
- This creates tighter spreads and more accurate pricing on Raydium than isolated AMMs
- The hybrid AMM + CLOB architecture was Raydium’s original differentiator vs. Orca
How to Use Raydium
- Visit raydium.io
- Connect Solana wallet (Phantom, Backpack, or Ledger via Phantom — )
- To swap: Enter input/output tokens, review price impact, confirm
- To provide liquidity: Navigate to Liquidity tab, select or create pool, deposit equal value of both tokens
- To farm: Stake LP tokens in farming pools to earn additional RAY/partner token rewards
Note: Jupiter aggregator routes through Raydium automatically for best price; most Solana users interact with Raydium’s liquidity without visiting directly.
Buy SOL to use Raydium:
Social Media Sentiment
Raydium’s identity as Pump.fun’s graduation venue made it central to Solana meme culture in 2024-2025. CT sentiment is bullish on RAY as a bet on Solana’s ecosystem growth but cautious about competitive threats. Competition from other AMMs and potential changes to Pump.fun’s graduation target have created uncertainty. LaunchLab is seen as underperforming relative to Jupiter’s LFG launchpad in terms of quality project pipeline.
Last updated: 2026-04
Related Terms
Sources
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