Overview
Raydium launched on Solana in 2021 as one of its first decentralized exchanges. It is still one of Solana’s largest, holding about $1.1 billion in deposits, the most of the major Solana DEXs.
How it works
- Liquidity pools: standard and concentrated-liquidity pools where traders swap and liquidity providers earn fees.
- LaunchLab: a token launchpad, Raydium’s answer to Pump.fun, where new tokens start on a bonding curve and then move to Raydium pools.
- Buybacks: 12% of trading fees go to buying RAY. The buyback wallet held about 83 million RAY, about 31% of the circulating supply, with no announced plan to release them.
2026: rebound
In the third quarter of 2026, Raydium’s net revenue rose about 264% to around $8 million, mostly after the launch platform StonkFun moved to LaunchLab in September, generating over 150,000 token launches that month. Buybacks tripled. Analysts warn that this depends heavily on one partner and may not last.
The RAY token
| RAY at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Maximum supply | 555 million RAY |
| In circulation (Oct 2026) | about 270 million |
| Price (29 Oct 2026) | about $1.69 |
| All-time high | about $16.83 (September 2021) |
| Market cap | about $455 million (#118) |
Risks
- Volatile revenue. Launchpad and meme-coin activity rise and fall quickly.
- Competition. PumpSwap and other Solana venues have taken a lot of trading volume.
- Security. In December 2022, an attacker stole about $4.4 million from Raydium pools through a compromised admin key; Raydium compensated users.
Raydium vs. the competition
| Raydium | Pump.fun | Meteora | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | DEX + launchpad | Launchpad + DEX | DEX with launch pools |
| Token value | Fee buybacks | Revenue buybacks | Governance |
| Token | RAY | PUMP | MET |
Our verdict
Raydium is a core part of Solana trading with a strong buyback model, and 2026 showed it can win back activity. But its revenue swings with meme-coin trends. RAY is a high-risk investment: invest only what you can afford to lose.
This review is for information only and is not financial advice.