Raydium

Raydium has held its position as one of Solana's most important decentralized exchanges through multiple market cycles, and in 2026, it remains a major player despite increasingly fierce competition. The hybrid AMM-plus-order-book model that made Raydium famous still gives it a competitive advantage, and the addition of concentrated liquidity pools and the LaunchLab launchpad has broadened the protocol's appeal considerably. We tested Raydium extensively over a period of several weeks, swapping tokens, providing liquidity to CLMM pools, and experimenting with limit orders. Our rating: 8.4 out of 10, with particular strength in fee efficiency and raw liquidity depth, though the platform's exclusive focus on Solana and a past security incident remain points to consider.

What is Raydium?

Raydium launched in February 2021 as Solana's first major automated market maker. From day one, the protocol distinguished itself with a hybrid design: AMM liquidity pools that simultaneously provide liquidity to Solana's on-chain order book (originally Serum, now OpenBook). This means that when you swap on Raydium, the protocol checks both its own pools and the OpenBook order book to find you the best possible price. It was a bold architectural choice that linked Raydium's liquidity to the broader Solana trading ecosystem.

The founding team built Raydium to take full advantage of Solana's technical capabilities - sub-second transaction finality and transaction costs measured in fractions of a cent. These properties make Raydium feel very close to a centralized exchange in terms of speed and cost, without sacrificing the self-custodial nature of DeFi.

Raydium introduced Concentrated Liquidity Market Maker (CLMM) pools to Solana, allowing LPs to provide liquidity within custom price ranges rather than across the entire price spectrum. This mirrors the concept popularized by Uniswap V3 but optimized for Solana's architecture. The CLMM V2, audited by Neodyme in March 2023, now supports eight different fee tiers ranging from 0.01% to 2%, giving pool creators fine-grained control over their fee-to-liquidity tradeoffs.

The protocol's governance token, RAY, has a total supply of 555,000,000 with approximately 280,000,000 in circulation. RAY staking provides access to AcceleRaytor launches and governance voting. In early 2026, Coinbase added RAY-USD spot trading, a meaningful signal of the token's growing mainstream recognition.

A significant development in 2025 was the launch of LaunchLab, Raydium's own token launchpad built after Pump.fun's departure from the platform. LaunchLab generated $12.7 million in revenue during Q3 2025 alone, accounting for over half of Raydium's total revenue that quarter and marking a decisive shift in the protocol's business model. The platform also launched Raydium Perps, offering up to 50x leverage with gasless execution.

Raydium operates exclusively on Solana. While some may view this as a limitation, it also means the team can focus entirely on optimizing for Solana's strengths rather than spreading resources across multiple chains. TVL expanded to $2.46 billion during Q3 2025, and Q3 revenue reached $24.3 million, up 69% quarter-over-quarter.

Features and Functionality

Trading Interface

Raydium's trading interface has improved meaningfully over the years. The current version presents a clean swap panel with token selectors, amount inputs, and real-time price quotes. We found the UI responsive and functional, though it lacks some of the visual polish you will find on platforms like Orca. The routing display shows which pools your trade will pass through, including whether it routes through OpenBook for better execution.

Limit orders are supported natively, which is a real advantage for traders who want to set specific entry or exit points without monitoring the market constantly. In our testing, limit orders placed on SOL/USDC executed within seconds of the target price being reached. The order book integration means limit orders on Raydium can match against both AMM liquidity and other limit orders.

The interface also includes a portfolio section showing your active LP positions, farming rewards, and staking balances. Charting is minimal - Raydium does not include native price charts, so you will want to keep DexScreener or Birdeye open in another tab for technical analysis.

Supported Markets

Raydium supports approximately 2,500 trading pairs, making it one of the most comprehensive DEXes on Solana by market coverage. This includes all major pairs like SOL/USDC, SOL/USDT, and dozens of DeFi token pairs, plus a long tail of smaller tokens launched through LaunchLab and the broader Solana ecosystem.

The protocol offers three pool types. Standard AMM pools use the classic constant product (x*y=k) model. CLMM pools allow concentrated liquidity within custom price ranges. And OpenBook-integrated pools connect Raydium's AMM liquidity to the broader Solana order book ecosystem. Most trading volume now flows through CLMM pools for major pairs, as they offer better capital efficiency.

New tokens frequently launch on Raydium, particularly through LaunchLab. This means you often have access to newly launched Solana tokens before they appear on other platforms. The flip side is that new and untested tokens carry inherent risk, so always verify contract addresses and check liquidity depth before trading newer listings.

Liquidity and Pool Depth

With approximately $180M in TVL and $150M in daily volume (per our data file), Raydium commands serious liquidity on Solana. During Q3 2025, the protocol processed $51.9 billion in quarterly trading volume. Even as competitors have chipped away at its market share - Raydium's share moved from 23.5% in July 2025 to around 10.5% by September 2025 before partially recovering - the absolute volume numbers remain substantial.

In our swap testing, a $10,000 SOL-to-USDC trade showed less than 0.03% price impact on the main CLMM pool. Even a $50,000 trade registered under 0.1% impact, which is excellent for a decentralized venue. The OpenBook integration plays a role here - by aggregating liquidity from both AMM pools and the order book, Raydium can offer tighter spreads than pure AMM alternatives.

For smaller tokens, liquidity varies dramatically. Popular DeFi tokens like JUP, BONK, and WIF have deep pools. But for newly launched or micro-cap tokens, slippage can be significant. Always check the price impact display before confirming trades on lesser-known pairs.

Advanced Features

Raydium's hybrid AMM/order book model remains its defining advanced feature. Liquidity from AMM pools flows into OpenBook's central limit order book, meaning Raydium LPs earn fees from order book trades in addition to regular AMM swaps. This integration provides LPs with a broader fee-earning surface and gives traders access to deeper combined liquidity.

The CLMM pools support eight fee tiers: 0.01%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2%. This granularity allows pool creators to calibrate fees precisely for different asset types. Stablecoin pairs typically use the lowest tiers, while volatile meme tokens might use higher tiers to compensate LPs for greater risk.

LaunchLab is Raydium's answer to token launch platforms. Projects can use LaunchLab to conduct fair launches with bonding curve mechanics. RAY stakers get priority access, and the platform has become a meaningful revenue driver for the protocol. In Q3 2025, LaunchLab generated $12.7 million, up 220% from the previous quarter.

AcceleRaytor, the older IDO launchpad, still exists for larger project launches. Projects sell tokens through AcceleRaytor, and RAY staking determines your allocation tier. While activity has shifted somewhat toward LaunchLab for smaller launches, AcceleRaytor remains relevant for more established projects.

Raydium Perps, launched in 2025, brings perpetual futures trading with up to 50x leverage. This is a significant expansion beyond spot trading. Our initial testing showed the perpetual contracts function smoothly, though liquidity on less popular pairs can be thin.

Fees and Pricing

Fee Structure

Raydium's standard swap fee is 0.25% per trade. Of this, 0.22% goes to liquidity providers and 0.03% to the protocol treasury. On CLMM pools, the fee depends on the pool's configured tier, ranging from 0.01% to 2%, with LPs receiving the majority and the protocol taking a small cut.

The real cost story with Raydium is gas. Solana transaction fees are almost negligibly small - typically between $0.001 and $0.01 per transaction. This means the swap fee is essentially your only cost. There are no hidden charges, no deposit fees, and no withdrawal fees from the protocol itself.

For LP operations like creating or adjusting positions, transaction costs are similarly minimal. Opening a new CLMM position cost us roughly $0.005 in gas. Adjusting or closing a position was similarly inexpensive. This makes active LP management practical on Raydium in a way that would be cost-prohibitive on Ethereum.

How Raydium Fees Compare

Here is a direct comparison of Raydium's fees against key competitors:

Raydium and Orca charge identical headline swap fees at 0.25%, but Raydium passes a slightly larger share to LPs (0.22% vs 0.20%). Jupiter, as an aggregator, does not charge a traditional swap fee but may route through Raydium's pools and apply its own platform fees. Compared to Ethereum-based alternatives, the cost advantage is massive due to Solana's near-zero gas.

Real-World Cost Examples

Here is what we actually paid during our testing on Raydium:

A $1,000 SOL-to-USDC swap cost us $2.50 in swap fees and $0.004 in gas - totaling $2.504. Performing the same trade on Uniswap V3 on Ethereum at the 0.30% tier would cost $3.00 in fees plus approximately $8.00 in gas, for a total of $11.00.

A $100 swap on Raydium cost $0.25 in swap fees and $0.003 in gas - just $0.253 total. The same trade on an Ethereum DEX might cost $0.30 in fees plus $7 or more in gas, making Ethereum completely impractical for small swaps.

A larger $50,000 trade cost $125 in swap fees and $0.005 in gas. At this size, gas becomes irrelevant on both platforms, and the difference comes down to the swap fee percentage and execution quality. Raydium's CLMM pools delivered minimal additional slippage at this size for major pairs.

For LP operations, we deposited into a CLMM pool for $0.005 in gas, adjusted the position range for $0.004, and eventually closed it for $0.005. Total LP management costs over two weeks: under $0.02. On Ethereum, the equivalent operations would have cost $30 to $60 in gas alone.

Security and Safety

Smart Contract Audits

Raydium has been audited by three security firms. Kudelski Security audited the original AMM V1 in February 2021. SlowMist reviewed the staking contracts in August 2021. Neodyme audited the CLMM V2 in March 2023. The audits cover the core protocol infrastructure, though newer additions like LaunchLab and Raydium Perps may warrant additional review.

The protocol is fully open-source, with all contract code available on GitHub. This transparency allows independent security researchers to review the codebase, which is particularly important given the protocol's significant TVL.

Security Track Record

Raydium's security history includes one notable incident. In December 2022, the protocol suffered an exploit that resulted in approximately $4.4 million in losses. The attacker gained control of an admin pool private key, likely through a trojan program that infected the virtual machine hosting the key. Using this compromised key, the attacker called the withdraw_pnl function to drain liquidity from eight constant product pools.

The team's response was substantial. They identified and patched the vulnerability, published a detailed post-mortem, and worked with Solana teams, auditors, and centralized exchanges to track the attacker. A DAO vote was passed on December 30, 2022, authorizing the treasury to compensate affected users. The team used their own unlocked RAY tokens to repay RAY losses, and the DAO treasury funded stablecoin and non-RAY compensation.

Following the exploit, Raydium upgraded its smart contracts to remove the admin controls that had been exploited, engaged Neodyme for an additional audit, and implemented stricter key management practices. The protocol has not suffered another exploit since.

We want to be direct about this: the 2022 exploit is a real mark on Raydium's record. The response was commendable - full transparency, victim compensation, and concrete security improvements. But the fact that a compromised admin key could drain user funds revealed a design weakness that should have been addressed earlier.

User Protection Features

Raydium employs a 12-hour timelock on contract changes, giving users warning before upgrades take effect. A multisig wallet controls administrative functions, preventing any single party from making unilateral changes. The protocol maintains a $500,000 bug bounty program to incentivize responsible vulnerability disclosure.

Post-exploit, the team removed the specific admin functions that enabled the 2022 attack. The current contract architecture significantly reduces the attack surface compared to the original design. All governance decisions are made through RAY token holder voting, providing community oversight over protocol direction.

Getting Started with Raydium

Connecting Your Wallet

To use Raydium, visit raydium.io and click "Connect Wallet" in the top right. Raydium supports Phantom, Solflare, Backpack, and other major Solana wallets. If you are new to Solana, we recommend Phantom as the most beginner-friendly option. Install the browser extension, create a wallet, and fund it with some SOL for gas (even 0.01 SOL is more than enough for dozens of transactions).

Once connected, the interface will display your wallet balance and you can begin trading immediately. There is no account creation, email verification, or KYC process - connect and trade.

A tip from our testing: make sure you have at least 0.01 SOL reserved for transaction fees at all times. Solana transactions fail if your wallet does not hold a minimum SOL balance to cover rent and gas. We made the error early on of converting nearly all our SOL into USDC and then could not execute trades until we acquired more SOL from an exchange. Even 0.05 SOL is enough for hundreds of swaps, so keep a small buffer.

Making Your First Swap

Navigate to the Swap page. Select your input token (for example, SOL) and output token (for example, USDC). Enter the amount you want to swap. The interface shows the expected output, price impact, minimum received amount, and which pools the route passes through.

Check the price impact indicator. For major pairs with good liquidity, price impact should be well under 0.1% for typical retail-sized trades. If you see higher impact, consider splitting your trade or checking whether a different route might work better. Click "Swap" and approve the transaction in your wallet. The trade typically confirms in under one second.

You can also adjust slippage tolerance in the settings gear icon. The default of 0.5% is reasonable for most trades. For volatile tokens or larger trades, you may want to increase it slightly to prevent failed transactions.

During our testing, we executed a $2,000 SOL to USDC swap and the trade completed in under one second. The actual output was within $0.02 of the quoted amount, which shows the router is accurate in its estimates. We also tested swapping a lower-liquidity token (a recently launched LaunchLab token) and found that increasing the slippage to 2% was necessary for the transaction to succeed. The platform gave a clear warning when the default slippage was too low, which prevented a frustrating failed transaction.

For users who prefer limit orders, the process is similarly simple. Select the Limit tab on the swap interface, enter your target price and quantity, and submit. The order sits on OpenBook until it fills or you cancel it. We placed a limit order for SOL at a price 1.5% below market and it filled about four hours later during a brief dip. The execution price matched our limit exactly.

Providing Liquidity

To provide liquidity, go to the Liquidity section. Choose between standard pools (simple 50/50 deposits at all prices) and CLMM pools (concentrated liquidity at custom ranges). For CLMM, select a trading pair, choose a fee tier, and set your price range using the visual slider.

We recommend starting with a stablecoin pair on a standard pool to learn the mechanics before venturing into CLMM. Concentrated liquidity can generate higher returns but requires active management - if the price moves outside your range, you stop earning fees and your position becomes 100% weighted toward the underperforming token.

After setting your parameters, deposit your tokens and confirm the transaction. Your position immediately begins earning fees from trades that pass through your price range.

User Experience

Desktop Platform

Raydium's desktop interface is functional and information-dense. The dark-themed layout displays all essential information without excessive clutter. We found the swap experience smooth and fast, with transactions confirming almost instantly on Solana. The LP management pages are more complex but logically organized.

The site could benefit from visual modernization. Compared to newer Solana DEXes, Raydium's design feels slightly utilitarian. It works well, but it does not impress visually. The portfolio overview page is useful for tracking positions, though a dedicated analytics dashboard with historical performance data would be a meaningful upgrade.

Mobile Experience

Raydium does not offer a native mobile app. The web interface is accessible through mobile wallet browsers (Phantom, Solflare), and basic swaps work fine on mobile. However, managing CLMM positions on a phone screen is not ideal - the range selection tools really need desktop-width displays.

For quick swaps while away from your computer, the mobile web version is adequate. For anything involving LP management, portfolio review, or LaunchLab participation, we strongly recommend using a desktop.

Customer Support

Raydium's primary support channels are Discord, Twitter, and the documentation site at docs.raydium.io. The Discord community is large and active, with both team members and experienced community members answering questions. Documentation covers protocol mechanics, tutorials, and developer resources.

There is no formal ticket system or live chat support. This is standard for DeFi protocols but can be frustrating for users encountering issues that require personalized help. Our experience with Discord support was generally positive - questions received thoughtful responses within a few hours during active periods.

Raydium vs Competitors

Here is how Raydium measures up against its most direct competitors:

Versus Orca: This is Raydium's most direct competitor. Both operate exclusively on Solana with similar fee structures. Orca wins on user interface quality and beginner-friendliness, while Raydium wins on raw feature count (order book integration, launchpad, perpetuals, limit orders). Orca's Whirlpools and Raydium's CLMM are both excellent concentrated liquidity implementations. For beginners, Orca is more welcoming. For power users who want every tool in one place, Raydium has the edge.

Versus Jupiter: Jupiter is an aggregator that routes through Raydium's pools among others. The two are more complementary than competitive - many Jupiter swaps ultimately execute on Raydium. However, Jupiter's aggregation can sometimes find better prices by splitting routes across multiple protocols. For single-source liquidity provision and direct pool interaction, Raydium is the choice. For simply finding the best swap price, Jupiter's aggregation is hard to beat.

Versus Uniswap V3: Uniswap has vastly more total liquidity and multi-chain coverage. But Raydium wins decisively on cost - both swap fees and gas. A trade that costs $0.25 total on Raydium might cost $10 or more on Uniswap when Ethereum gas is included. For Solana-native assets, Raydium is obviously the better choice. For Ethereum-native assets, Uniswap remains dominant.

Who Should Use Raydium?

Raydium is the right choice for several types of users. If you are an active Solana trader who values speed and low costs, Raydium provides an excellent trading environment. Sub-second confirmations, near-zero gas, and deep liquidity on major pairs make it suitable for everything from small swaps to five-figure trades.

Liquidity providers who want granular control over their positions will appreciate the CLMM pools with eight fee tiers. The ability to calibrate fees to match asset volatility, combined with Solana's negligible gas costs for position management, makes active LP strategies more practical here than on Ethereum.

Users interested in early-stage Solana projects will find LaunchLab and AcceleRaytor valuable for accessing new token launches. RAY staking provides priority access, creating an additional incentive to hold and stake the governance token.

Raydium may not be the best fit for users who want multi-chain support - it is Solana-only. If you primarily trade on Ethereum, Arbitrum, or other EVM chains, you will need different platforms. The user interface, while functional, is not as polished as Orca's, so beginners who prioritize simplicity might prefer Orca as their first Solana DEX. And the 2022 exploit, while fully addressed, may give security-focused users pause compared to protocols with clean track records.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Raydium integrate with OpenBook?

Raydium pools provide liquidity directly to OpenBook, Solana's central limit order book (formerly Serum). When you swap on Raydium, the protocol checks both AMM pools and OpenBook to find the best price. This means Raydium LPs earn fees from order book trades as well as direct swaps, and traders get access to the deepest combined liquidity on Solana.

What is LaunchLab and how is it different from AcceleRaytor?

LaunchLab is Raydium's newer token launch platform using bonding curve mechanics for fair launches. AcceleRaytor is the older IDO-style launchpad for more established projects. LaunchLab focuses on smaller, community-driven launches, while AcceleRaytor handles larger, curated token sales. Both provide RAY stakers with priority access.

Is Raydium safe to use after the 2022 exploit?

Raydium has made significant security improvements since the December 2022 exploit. The team patched the vulnerability, removed the admin controls that were exploited, completed an additional audit with Neodyme, and compensated all affected users through a DAO treasury vote. The protocol maintains a $500,000 bug bounty and multisig governance. No further exploits have occurred.

How much does it cost to trade on Raydium?

Raydium charges a 0.25% swap fee on standard pools, with CLMM pools offering tiers from 0.01% to 2%. Solana gas fees are typically under $0.01 per transaction. A $1,000 swap costs approximately $2.50 total. This makes Raydium dramatically cheaper than Ethereum-based DEXes.

What are CLMM pools and should I use them?

CLMM (Concentrated Liquidity Market Maker) pools let you provide liquidity within a specific price range rather than across all prices. This increases capital efficiency but requires active management. If the price moves outside your range, you stop earning fees. CLMMs are best for experienced LPs who can monitor positions; beginners should start with standard pools.

Can I trade perpetual contracts on Raydium?

Yes, Raydium launched perpetual futures trading in 2025 with up to 50x leverage. Raydium Perps offers gasless execution on supported pairs. This is a newer feature, so liquidity on some pairs may be limited compared to dedicated perpetual platforms.

What is the RAY token used for?

RAY is Raydium's governance token. Holders can vote on protocol decisions, stake for farming rewards, and gain priority access to AcceleRaytor and LaunchLab token launches. RAY has a total supply of 555 million with approximately 280 million in circulation.

Final Verdict

Raydium earns its 8.4/10 rating as one of Solana's most feature-rich and liquid decentralized exchanges. The hybrid AMM/order book model remains technically impressive, the CLMM pools offer excellent capital efficiency, and additions like LaunchLab and Raydium Perps have expanded the platform well beyond basic swapping. Fees are rock-bottom thanks to Solana's near-zero gas costs.

The 2022 exploit is a legitimate concern, but the team's transparent response, full compensation of affected users, and concrete security improvements since then have largely rebuilt trust. The protocol's revenue growth and TVL expansion through 2025 into 2026 suggest the broader market agrees.

Raydium faces real competitive pressure from Jupiter's aggregation, Orca's user experience, and newer prop-AMM entrants. But for users who want a single Solana platform with trading, concentrated liquidity, a launchpad, and perpetuals, Raydium remains the most complete package available. We recommend it for active Solana traders and liquidity providers, with the caveat that beginners might find Orca's simpler interface a more comfortable starting point.