- Raydium recorded record-breaking trading volume in January 2025 but saw a sharp decline by quarter’s end.
- Meme tokens, led by TRUMP, drove trading surges but lost momentum by March.
- The network Perps launched with strong early activity, but volumes faded along with market sentiment.
Raydium cemented its position as Solana’s top decentralized exchange (DEX) for the fourth consecutive quarter in Q1 2025, according to Messari’s latest State of Raydium report. The protocol averaged $3.6 billion in daily trading volume, up 12.7% quarter-over-quarter, driven largely by January’s surge to $195.8 billion in total monthly volume. A single-day high of $16 billion was recorded on January 19, following the viral debut of former President Donald Trump’s meme token, TRUMP, launched just two days earlier.
However, the momentum proved short-lived. By March 31, daily volume had dropped sharply to $709.6 million. The decline mirrored a broader market cooldown and reflected in Raydium’s quarterly average of $1.1 billion daily in March, 66% below January’s record. Despite losing ground, Raydium retained a 46.9% share of Solana’s DEX volume, though down from 56.0% in Q4 2024.
Notably, Raydium relinquished its prior dominance of the Solana DEX ecosystem, no longer capturing a majority share as it had in previous quarters.
Meme Tokens Boost Solana DEX Trading Activity
The market frenzy ignited by high-profile meme token launches, including TRUMP, MELANIA, and LIBRA, drove unprecedented trading activity early in the quarter. Meteora briefly overtook Orca as Solana’s second-largest DEX, peaking at 31.8% of Solana DEX volume on February 14 following LIBRA’s debut. However, the project’s collapse amid allegations of insider manipulation led to Co-Founder Ben Chow’s resignation, with Meteora’s share dropping to 11.8% for the remainder of Q1.
Meme tokens comprised 20.0% of Raydium’s trading activity in Q1, up from 14.3% a year ago, though down from 27.9% in Q4. Meanwhile, AI tokens surged in popularity, recording a 130% quarter-over-quarter increase in volume share, reflecting a broader trend: narrative-driven hype significantly influences user activity on Solana DEXs.
Beyond memes and AI, The network hosted notable liquidity pool launches for tokens such as SONIC, FDUSD, PORTAL, and zBTC.
Raydium Earns $402.8M in Fees in January Alone
Raydium’s beta launch of Perpetual Futures in January under the name of Raydium Perps was its entry into derivatives trading. Coupled with Orderly Network’s liquidity layer, the platform facilitated zero-gas and high-leverage trading on more than 110 pairs. The service was fee-less on the initial maker trades but peaked daily at $116 million in early February before slowing to $11.8 million by quarter’s end.
In defiance of its trading volume challenges, Raydium amassed a record $402.8 million in fees last month alone, driving quarterly daily average fees to $7.5 million, a 6.4% increase from Q4. The platform even temporarily outpaced Tether in daily fee generation as a milestone event.
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