RAY Token Surge

Raydium’s utility and governance token, RAY, surged about 28% on Tuesday, rising from $1.6 to $2. This increase followed reports of Raydium launching its own meme coin launchpad, LaunchLab, which may rival Pump.fun, a popular platform for meme token launches.

LaunchLab Features

Blockworks reports that LaunchLab will implement a similar bonding curve as Pump.fun but will enable third-party user interfaces to establish fees. It will also support multiple quote tokens and connect with Raydium’s liquidity provider locker to ensure perpetual swap fee security.

The development appears shortly after Pump.fun tested its own Automated Market Maker (AMM), indicating its move to distance from Raydium. This development could significantly impact Raydium, which has benefitted greatly from Pump.fun’s token pools.

Market Reactions

Rumors of Pump.fun’s AMM feature previously triggered a 30% decline in RAY’s price, according to CoinMarketCap, which worsened due to a broader crypto market correction caused by increasing tariff tensions and a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. In the last month, RAY’s value dropped approximately 60%.

Declining Interest in Meme Coins

Pump.fun has seen a graduation rate below 1% since February 17, per Dune Analytics, reflecting decreasing investor interest in meme coins, often considered high-risk. The overall market cap for meme coins has decreased by about 65% since it peaked on December 9.

Despite temporary optimism around Trump’s inauguration, the majority of meme tokens faced severe losses afterward. While Raydium’s established status might offer a competitive advantage, LaunchLab may confront initial challenges, particularly regarding user engagement. Delphi Digital’s Head of Research, Ceteris, indicated that while Raydium offers the liquidity infrastructure, platforms like Pump.fun and aggregators such as Jupiter maintain control over user experience.

Ceteris noted,
> “Pump.fun owns the user, Raydium is just back-end infra. Even when users go to trade after bonding, they go to Jupiter. Most probably don’t even realize they’re Raydium pools.”

Jongwon Park of Story Protocol added,
> “In fact, crypto UX gets better when you abstract away 10s of AMMs. Products are king, and liquidity in AMM follows products.”