Raydium Launches LaunchLab to Rival Pump.fun After Revenue Loss

Raydium, the firm behind the Solana-based automated market maker (AMM), has introduced LaunchLab, a new memecoin-making protocol designed to compete with Pump.fun. This development comes just a month after Pump.fun, a significant contributor to Raydium’s revenue, decided to part ways by migrating its token from Raydium’s liquidity pools to its own decentralized exchange, PumpSwap.

LaunchLab, which debuted on April 16, aims to leverage Raydium’s extensive liquidity pools to challenge Pump.fun’s dominance in the Solana memecoin launchpad market. Raydium has highlighted that LaunchLab offers memecoin enthusiasts customizable bonding curves and eliminates migration fees. Tokens that raise 85 Solana (SOL), currently valued at $11,150, will be instantly transitioned to Raydium’s AMM. According to the LaunchLab platform, around 10 tokens have already surpassed this threshold.

Raydium has also emphasized that tokens can be launched for free on LaunchLab, and creators have the option to earn 10% of trading fees from the AMM pool post-graduation. The trading fees on LaunchLab are set at 1%, with 25% of these fees allocated for Raydium (RAY) buybacks. This strategic move is aimed at enhancing the value of the RAY token and attracting more users to the platform.

The launch of LaunchLab has sparked significant interest in the crypto community, with the RAY token experiencing a near 14% price surge shortly after the announcement. This surge pushed the token’s value up to $2.41 before it stabilized at $2.21. The introduction of LaunchLab is seen as a direct response to Pump.fun’s recent success and its decision to operate independently through PumpSwap.

PumpSwap, which has been gaining traction since its launch on March 22, has seen a remarkable increase in trading volume. The platform has broken its daily record in trading volume for five consecutive days, with a notable $460 million in trading volume on April 17. This figure narrowly surpassed the previous day’s record of $454.9 million, marking the fourth consecutive day above $400 million in trading volume. Since its inception, PumpSwap has processed over $7.3 billion worth of volume, highlighting its growing influence in the memecoin market.

The competition between Raydium’s LaunchLab and Pump.fun’s PumpSwap is expected to intensify as both platforms vie for dominance in the Solana memecoin ecosystem. The introduction of LaunchLab not only provides a new avenue for memecoin creators but also offers a robust alternative for users seeking to engage with memecoins on the Solana blockchain. The strategic features of LaunchLab, such as customizable bonding curves and no migration fees, are likely to attract a significant number of users and creators, further fueling the growth of the memecoin market on Solana.