- Raydium launched LaunchLab, a token creator platform aimed squarely at Pump.fun.
- The two used to be close, but PumpSwap’s launch shifted the vibe to full-on competition.
- LaunchLab gives 25% of transaction fees to buy back RAY, and early market response has been bullish.
Alright, so here’s what’s going down on Solana—Raydium, the top dog when it comes to decentralized exchanges on the network, just dropped a new tool called LaunchLab. And yeah, it’s pretty much a direct shot at Pump.fun, the memecoin factory that’s been making serious noise lately.
What Is LaunchLab All About?
LaunchLab lets folks roll out their own tokens—just like Pump.fun—but with a twist: it’s baked right into Raydium’s liquidity pools. That means smoother integration, quicker access to trading, and way more control over how the token behaves once it’s live. Also, outside platforms can set their own transaction fees now, which could be a game changer for devs looking for flexibility.
A Partnership Gone Cold
This all gets spicier when you remember these two were actually working pretty closely not that long ago. Pump.fun used to rely heavily on Raydium to handle secondary trading. Once a memecoin crossed that $69K market cap threshold, it would shift to Raydium’s AMM by default.
But then Pump.fun launched PumpSwap on March 20—its own decentralized exchange—and boom, that cozy little partnership got a lot more competitive. Since its launch, PumpSwap has clocked over $31.7 billion in total volume. Not bad for a platform that’s only been live a few weeks.
Raydium’s Counterpunch
LaunchLab isn’t just a copy-paste job though. It’s got some fresh features. One standout? A quarter of all transaction fees will go toward buying back Raydium’s native token, RAY. And guess what? That announcement gave RAY a nice bump—up nearly 9% on the day it dropped.
Meanwhile, Pump.fun’s not backing down either. They’re teasing the launch of their own native token to follow up the success of PumpSwap. So yeah, this back-and-forth might just be getting started.
