In a bold countermove against former partner Pump.fun, Raydium—the Solana-based decentralized exchange—has introduced a new memecoin launchpad, LaunchLab, to reclaim dominance in the Solana meme token space.
Launched on April 16, LaunchLab arrives just a month after Pump.fun cut ties with Raydium, migrating its token liquidity from Raydium’s pools to its own decentralized exchange, PumpSwap. Once a major contributor to Raydium’s revenue, Pump.fun’s departure set the stage for direct competition.
LaunchLab is designed to empower creators by offering customizable bonding curves, zero migration fees, and instant graduation to Raydium’s AMM for tokens that raise at least 85 SOL, roughly $11,150 at current prices. According to the platform, about 10 tokens have already met this threshold.
Token creation on LaunchLab is free, and creators can opt to earn 10% of trading fees once their tokens graduate to Raydium’s AMM. The protocol charges a 1% trading fee, with 25% allocated for RAY token buybacks—an incentive likely aimed at boosting long-term value for holders.
The market responded swiftly. RAY surged by nearly 14%, hitting $2.41 within four hours of the announcement before pulling back to $2.21, per CoinGecko.
Meanwhile, Pump.fun’s spin-off, PumpSwap, continues to smash records. On April 17, it posted $460 million in daily trading volume, narrowly beating the $454.9 million seen the day prior. This marks five consecutive days of record-breaking volume, with total trades on the platform topping $7.3 billion since its March 22 debut, according to DefiLlama. Matrixport analysts warn of a potential consolidation phase, citing a 71% drop in Raydium’s total value locked (TVL) and a 37% decline in Solana’s TVL.
However, this development could reshape competition in the DeFi space, especially given Pump. Fun reported the development of its own automated market maker (AMM) to reduce reliance on Raydium’s liquidity pools. If successful, this could divert trading fees from Raydium and strengthen Pump. Fun’s position in the market. With LaunchLab.
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