>Raydium, a key player in the decentralized exchange (DEX) space on the Solana blockchain, experienced a remarkable first quarter in 2025. The platform subsequently saw enormous increases in trading volume. Along with successful expansions and token buybacks, it proved its strength among the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. Raydium’s share of global DEX volume grew by 149% from 6.1% in Q1 2024, showcasing its emerging dominance.

The platform’s daily volume averaged $3.6 billion which is a quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) increase of 12.7%. Raydium’s success was part of a record $195.8 billion in overall volume during January, or an average of $6.3 billion per day. These numbers speak to Raydium’s growing popularity and performance as a powerful, efficient decentralized trading platform.

Record Volume and Fee Generation

Over Q1 2025, Raydium showcased their remarkable financial performance with all time-high volumes and resulting massive fee generation. This financial milestone reflects the burgeoning power and utility of the platform in the ever-expanding universe of decentralized finance (DeFi).

The platform earned 37,210 SOL in pool creation fees, down 12.5% QoQ. Ever since the implementation of pool creation fees, Raydium has earned more than 241,280 SOL.

Raydium processed a record-high $76.2 million in USDC over the protocol’s fee, a 38% increase QoQ. This boom in revenue underscores a dramatic rise in trading activity and platform use.

>Strategic RAY Buybacks and Tokenomics

Raydium had a masterful strategy of using the fees it generated to buy back record amounts of its native RAY token. These buybacks are intended to decrease the circulating supply and drive up the token’s value, thereby providing more value for RAY holders.

We spent $76.2 million USDC to repurchase an all-time high 15.4 million RAY. This buyback is 2.8% of the max supply. This buyback volume, which is a 17% increase QoQ, shows Raydium’s ongoing dedication to its token’s value.

Raydium’s total supply is capped at 366.3 million RAY, with a large share dedicated to ecosystem, treasury, and liquidity provider reserves.

"The majority of the locked supply remains allocated to the Mining Reserve, Partnership & Ecosystem, and Advisors." - docs.raydium.io

As of the end of Q1, approximately 290.3 million RAY were actively circulating in the market. This is the equivalent of 52.3% of the total maximum supply.

Platform Enhancements and Integrations

Raydium is expanding and iterating on its platform on a daily basis. It provides rich user engagement tools that enhance customer experience and increase awareness within its ecosystem. Perpetual futures trading, a token launchpad, and integrations with other key DeFi projects are among the most notable additions.

Raydium allows users to permissionlessly create new liquidity pools, provide liquidity to existing pools, launch tokens, swap tokens, and trade perpetual futures. A little over two months later on January 9, 2025, Raydium went public with a beta version for trading perpetual futures. During the beta period, all maker trades are free and all taker trades are 2.5 bps.

Its own token launchpad, LaunchLab, went live on Raydium on April 16.

"Quick and free launches: Anyone can launch a token, for free." - docs.raydium.io

Raydium connects with other infrastructures like Daos.fun, FluxBot, Pumpkin, Printr, and Bonk. This expansion boosts its accessibility and usefulness across the Solana ecosystem. On January 1, 2024 the trail pool creation fee was set to 0.68 SOL. This fee is meant to discourage spamming in regular AMM pools.