PumpSwap and Raydium expanded Solana activity, instead of competing for traders

PumpSwap, the new DEX for Pump.fun memes, is not displacing Raydium. Instead, it is growing the pie for Solana trading activity. 

PumpSwap is growing the Solana DEX ecosystem. The new DEX, which carries meme tokens from Pump.fun, is not displacing Raydium, which retains its usual range of trading volumes. 

PumpSwap has been running since March 20, accruing $266.3M in daily trading volume. The exchange absorbs all new graduating tokens, in addition to several high-activity pairs based on SOL and stablecoins. 

Raydium remains leading DEX, PumpSwap aims for human users

Raydium is still ahead with $1.1B in daily trading volumes, achieving its own growth path. For now, PumpSwap has not stolen volumes from the leading Solana DEX, but has grown the pie for DEX activity. The DEX is fast to adopt newly trending tokens, as most of the Solana assets are still created through Pump.fun. Raydium carries more legacy pairs, but has lost the inflow of new Pump.fun tokens. 

The PumpSwap DEX carries USDC pairs, while also trading Jupiter (JUP) and Pudgy Penguins (PENGU). The addition of new meme tokens, especially trending assets from outside Pump.fun, also adds to the current volumes. As a result, PumpSwap already commands over 6.9% of all Solana DEX-based activity. PumpSwap is now in the top 5 of Solana DEX, closing in on Lifinity in terms of weekly trading volumes. 

Raydium slightly decreased its share of DEX trades to 54%, down from 63%. The DEX is also competing more heavily with Orca, Meteora, and Lifinity, each carrying its own brand of meme trading. 

Both Raydium and PumpSwap have a higher share of organic volume. The heightened activity on Orca and Meteora reflected a higher share of trading bots. 

PumpSwap also aims to build up the loyalty of its token creators, by planning to share some of the trading fees.

Pump.fun brings back token creators

Token creators are back on Pump.fun, with over 20K new assets created each day. Just weeks ago, Pump.fun reached a low point of activity, when only around 1,000 addresses launched new tokens. 

Last week, only around 4,000 creators launched tokens. Once Pump.fun revived, the platform now welcomed 9,801 creators. The inflow of new token creators follows a renewal of the Pump.fun live streaming feature, which is open for the top 5% of users. 

Pump.fun itself serves as a DEX for tokens that were not yet liquid enough to move to the native DEX. The platform carried trades for multiple pairs for trending tokens, forming a small speculative market for ‘trenches’ traders, with monthly volumes under $1M.

Thanks to Pump.fun, Solana is still the chain for mass tokenization. Most mass appeal social media memes appear on Solana. Alternative meme platforms like SunPump and Four.meme have a more niche selection of memes, with a more centrally curated experience. Pump.fun can still tap the latest social media trends. 

The new wave of Pump.fun memes, however, have a much harder time in raising liquidity. Previously, hot memes easily achieved $500M in valuation, while a handful of top memes like FARTCOIN and GIGA crossed the $1B valuation threshold. 

The new wave of meme tokens has difficulties in crossing the $100M market capitalization. Even the recently hot Retard Finder Coin (RFC), based on a prominent X account, only reached $53M in valuation. RFC traded at $0.059, an all-time peak, soon after becoming one of the tokens offered on Binance Alpha. As a trending asset, RFC made up to 58% of the daily volume on PumpSwap.

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