High-performance DEX and liquidity platform Raydium has emerged as the dominant liquidity venue for Solana’s rapidly expanding memestock market, with more than 90% of DEX volume flowing through the protocol.
The acceleration has been remarkable. Memecoin-equity pairs on Solana generated roughly $300 million in cumulative volume before surging to approximately $778 million in just 10 days. Almost all of that volume occurred on Raydium.
Blockworks data shows Raydium processed $721.5 million of the $778.9 million in combined memecoin-equity volume yesterday, September 17. Other Solana DEXs handled just $57.4 million.
The activity has pushed Raydium deeper into the tokenized-equity market. The protocol has now facilitated more than $5 billion in cumulative tokenized stock trading volume on Solana.
$5 Billion in Tokenized Stock Volume
Raydium contributor Infra highlighted the scale of the activity, with the protocol now handling the majority of onchain tokenized trading volume on Solana.
The numbers from individual platforms reinforce that position. xStocks reported more than $500 million in tokenized-asset trading volume over the last 10 days, with $SPYx leading activity across meme-tokenized pairs. According to xStocks, Raydium routed all of that volume.
StonkFun has also routed $1.7 billion in cumulative volume through Raydium.
Raydium itself set a new weekly all-time high for tokenized equities, recording $738 million in volume last week. That growth comes as the SEC opens a new regulatory pathway for tokenized stocks.
SEC Exemption Meets Raydium’s Permissioned AMMs
The SEC's September 17 Innovation Exemption arrives at an interesting time for Raydium. The protocol had already introduced Permissioned AMMs in July, creating a way for issuers of KYC-gated and regulated assets to access Raydium's liquidity while restricting pool participation to approved wallets.
That gives the SEC's new framework added significance for Raydium. The SEC granted temporary, conditional exemptive relief to Tokenized Securities Venues, allowing certain venues to facilitate trading in eligible tokenized U.S. stocks through permissioned AMMs and liquidity pools. The exemption will run for 5 years and includes conditions around investor access, trading limits, underlying stock rights, smart-contract audits, and issuer protections.
In other words, the regulatory environment is moving closer to the infrastructure Raydium has already built. If the exemption encourages more issuers to tokenize stocks and launch compliant secondary markets, Raydium's Permissioned AMMs could provide an existing liquidity layer for that activity on Solana.
Why $RAY Is Pumping
The expansion in Raydium's trading activity has coincided with a major rally in $RAY. The token has gained 109.2% over the past 2 weeks and 169% over the past month, reaching its highest price since January.
Several developments have accompanied the move. StonkFun moved all new launches to Raydium, while tokenized stocks from platforms including Backpack and xStocks also route through Raydium.
On September 8, Raydium executed its largest reported single buyback in almost 2 years, purchasing $640,788 worth of $RAY with 12% of protocol fees. The protocol has now spent approximately $203 million on cumulative $RAY buybacks, including $1.4 million last week.
Infra has repeatedly emphasized Raydium's decision to tie protocol growth directly to $RAY rather than an equity structure. The cumulative $RAY Raydium has bought back represents more than 30% of circulating supply. After accounting for those repurchased tokens, Infra estimates adjusted circulating supply at approximately 187 million $RAY.
Raydium also holds roughly $62 million in $SOL and $USDC on its balance sheet, according to Infra, with the holdings publicly verifiable onchain. Team and investor token unlocks ended in February 2024, while Infra described Raydium's remaining dilution from liquidity incentives as minimal.
Solana Foundation’s Chase Barker also praised Raydium's development over the years, highlighting its role as an early major DEX in the Solana ecosystem and its continued building through different market cycles.
A New Era for Solana Trading
Raydium now sits at the intersection of 3 rapidly developing markets: memecoins, tokenized equities, and onchain liquidity.
The key question now concerns durability. If tokenized equities continue gaining traction and memestock activity remains elevated, Raydium could continue benefiting from the volume flowing through its pools.
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