Raydium’s Token Surge Amidst Competition

Raydium’s native token, Ray, saw a significant increase on Monday, attributed to the decentralized exchange’s “deep liquidity,” despite tough competition from the new rival PumpSwap, as noted by one core contributor.

As the 133rd largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ray is currently trading around $1.95, according to data from CoinGecko. The token has risen 25% over the last two weeks, recovering losses experienced earlier this year with the growing popularity of Pump.fun.

Earlier, Ray dropped 7.6% within five minutes following Pump.fun’s launch of a competing exchange last Friday. Prior to that, the token had seen a 22% decline as rumors about Pump.fun emerged last month.

Nevertheless, Raydium’s metrics have remained relatively steady. On Sunday, the Solana-based exchange processed approximately $321.31 million in trading volume, showing a 4% decrease from the previous week, according to data from DefiLlama. However, on Monday, it exceeded the trading volume from the same day last week.

Raydium’s Resilience and Pump.fun’s Growth

In 2024, Raydium established itself as the leading DEX on Solana, achieving $124 billion in trading volume by January amidst a meme-coin-fueled market surge. However, later Pump.fun emerged as the largest token launchpad across all blockchains, rapidly becoming the fastest-growing application in crypto history, recently surpassing $600 million in revenue, according to Dune data.

Tokens from Pump.fun that complete their bonding curve and reach a $100,000 market cap are tradable on Raydium. At its peak in January, Pump.fun generated over 70,500 tokens, with 1,168 graduating to Raydium. The launchpad accounted for up to 70% of all tokens created on Solana, or 55% as of March 23.

Pseudonymous core contributor Stendhal emphasized that the dependence on Pump.fun’s project has been overstated, pointing out that Raydium offers deep liquidity across various asset classes beyond the Solana launchpad. He noted, “I believe the reliance from Pump.fun has been overblown,” and highlighted the importance of technical distribution for trading volume.

Figures from PumpSwap are less impressive, reporting $669,120 and $3.26 million in daily trading volume over the weekend, as per DefiLlama data.

‘Great Success’

Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen described the launch as a “great success” and noted the emerging popularity of the Morning Routine (ROUTINE) meme as an example of their exchange’s activity. Despite this, PumpSwap remains behind Raydium as Solana’s largest DEX.

In the last 24 hours, Raydium accounted for 32.7% of all volume on Solana, with Meteora and Orca close behind at 31.56% and 20.41%, respectively. Pump.fun’s competitor is in fifth place with just 5.74%.

Stendhal commented on the rivalry, stating, “It’s too early to assess the impact of a new player with a lot of mindshare joining the spot market landscape.” Although, he noted that the anticipated disruption from Pump.fun has yet to materialize.

If Pump.fun can generate another significant meme like Fartcoin (FARTCOIN), which peaked at over $2 billion, the competition may intensify. With ROUTINE’s recent surge to $19 million, optimism in meme coins is reviving among traders.

Cohen confirmed, “Volumes on PumpSwap have been increasing day-by-day, and I expect this trend to continue as more coins migrate and generate trading volume.”

Edited by James Rubin and Sebastian Sinclair