Without Pump.fun and meme coins, Solana would likely be lagging behind Ethereum and Tron. Then came meme coins like Bonk and BOME, and SOL prices turned the corner, rising from 2022 lows of around $8 to breaking all-time highs in January 2025.
Pump.fun and Rise Of Meme Coins On Solana
Pump.fun singlehandedly made Solana the go-to blockchain for launching meme coins. To launch an SPL token that can be swapped for SOL, for example, all you have to do is visit the Pump.fun homepage and choose a ticker name, a symbol, and a picture.
In the next few steps, your meme coin will be live, and if lucky enough to gain traction—say Elon Musk mentions your meme coin or it gets the attention of a developer—you’ll be set, even “graduate” and get listed on Raydium.
As more users launched meme coins on Solana via Pump.fun, the launchpad became the most profitable protocol on Solana.
However, there was another effect: since tokens with over $69,000 in market cap graduated and listed on Raydium, the DEX also became one of the top-performing protocols, riding the wave and churning out millions of dollars in revenue as traders swapped, searching for the next best Solana meme coins to buy.
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Pump.fun Says PumpSwap Is Live
This period of high performance could be over for Raydium now that Pump.fun has announced they are launching their own DEX, dubbed PumpSwap.
In a post on X, Pump.fun said PumpSwap will be a token-swapping portal powered by its own liquidity pools, placing it in direct competition with other DEXes, mainly Raydium, which has long been a hub for meme coin trading, benefiting from the Pump.fun boom.
Introducing PumpSwap, Pump’s new native DEX
beginning NOW all coins that complete their bonding curve will migrate directly to PumpSwap
PumpSwap enables
– instant migrations
– 0 migration fees (down from 6 SOL)
– more liquidity
– creator revenue sharing (coming soon)& more
pic.twitter.com/T9BkmmaVVS
— pump.fun (@pumpdotfun) March 20, 2025
According to Pump.fun developers, the goal is to enhance user experience, and one way of doing so is to eliminate needless friction.
Therefore, instead of tokens with at least $69,000 in market cap migrating and listing on Raydium, they will directly list on PumpSwap without any additional fee. Previously, migrating protocols had to pay a 6 SOL fee. All migrations will also be instant.
As a way of incentivizing meme coin traders to switch to PumpSwap, developers said a percentage of their revenue will, in the coming days, be shared with coin creators. Swap fees will be set at 0.25%, with 0.20% distributed to liquidity providers and the remaining 0.05% going to the DEX.
On X, the co-founder of Pump.fun said they wanted to “get to the next level” and are now “ruthlessly reducing barriers and points of friction.”
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A Blow For Raydium?
Whether Raydium was a barrier to their success remains to be seen. What’s clear is that the move is a massive blow for the popular Solana DEX.
For months, Raydium has been synonymous with meme coin trading on Solana. In the process, RAY, the native governance token, became one of the best cryptos to buy.
It is estimated that, on average, they received 36% of their trading volume from Pump.fun every month.
By the close of 2024, Raydium made about $154 million in revenue, of which nearly half was from Pump.fun. Now that tokens won’t be trading on its rails but on PumpSwap, it means Raydium will lose a big chunk of its trading volume and revenue.
Hours after the announcement, RAY slid, losing 11%, per Coingecko data.
Will Raydium Stand Tall?
All hope is, however, not lost.
This week, Raydium launched LaunchLab, a launchpad that rivals Pump.fun but their intention is not to “steal Pump.fun users.”
It features additions such as a flexible bonding curve and multi-token support, meaning it supports tokens beyond Solana.
The launchpad also offers seamless liquidity integration that ensures the DEX remains competitive, even staving off competitors.
According to Raydium, LaunchLab is “far more versatile” and will integrate the DEX’s LP locker for Fee Key NFTs. What this means is that it locks liquidity to secure swap fees forever.
Beyond the launchpad, it may take time before PumpSwap picks up momentum. Already, Raydium is popular and has a broader user base. Per DeFiLlama, it manages over $1.1 billion as of late March 2025.
Raydium also serves other sectors, including DeFi, not just meme coins, which Pump.fun aims to capitalize on after launching PumpSwap.
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Pump.fun Launches PumpSwap, The End of Raydium?
- PumpSwap’s Edge: Fee-free migrations and revenue sharing challenge Raydium’s model
- Raydium’s Risk: Losing Pump.fun’s 36% trading volume could cut millions in revenue
- Raydium’s Response: LaunchLab aims to retain users with flexible features and broad token support
The post Pump.fun Launches PumpSwap on Solana: Is This the End of Raydium (RAY)? appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
