RAY token up 8% as Raydium rolls out Pump.fun competitor ‘LaunchLab’

Raydium, Solana’s biggest DEX by cumulative volume, unveiled an anticipated token launch tool to rival popular memecoin factory Pump.fun. Dubbed LaunchLab, the platform enables users to launch tokens and integrates directly with Raydium’s liquidity pools, while also allowing third-party platforms to set transaction fees.

The move marks the latest phase of escalation between the two Solana-based products, which previously worked together in a strong mutual partnership. 

Reports of Raydium’s new platform first surfaced last month . Details on the project, apparently in development for months, came as Pump.fun launched its own DEX called PumpSwap. Pump.fun, previously a major contributor to Raydium’s revenue, had relied on Raydium for secondary market trading. Before PumpSwap, tokens created on Pump.fun automatically migrated to Raydium after crossing $69,000 in market capitalization. PumpSwap’s debut on March 20 changed this dynamic and directly competed with Raydium’s automated market maker (AMM).

Within its first 10 days, PumpSwap accumulated $2.5 billion in trading volume and now, less than a month after launching, has garnered over $31.7 billion in all-time volume, according to DefiLlama data.

Early reports suggested LaunchLab would closely resemble Pump.fun but with some twists. Among these changes is the allocation of 25% of transaction fees to repurchase RAY, Raydium’s native token. Following the LaunchLab announcement, RAY's price climbed about 8%, outperforming the broader cryptocurrency market, per price data from The Block. Pump.fun also plans to launch a native token after its AMM.