Pump.fun has just dropped a bombshell in the crypto world by launching its own decentralized exchange, PumpSwap. This move might just shake up the Solana (SOL) memecoin trading scene, potentially dethroning Raydium as the go-to DEX for these quirky digital assets.
Starting March 20, memecoins that successfully bond on Pump.fun will seamlessly migrate to PumpSwap. This is a big shift from the previous setup where bonded tokens would head over to Raydium, which had become a favorite among Solana’s memecoin traders.
PumpSwap is designed to be as smooth as butter, functioning similarly to Raydium V4 and Uniswap V2. The aim? To eliminate the friction that migrations used to cause, slowing down momentum and confusing new users. Now, migrations are instant and free, making it a breeze for users to trade their favorite coins.
But wait, there’s more! Just days before PumpSwap’s launch, Raydium announced its own memecoin launchpad, LaunchLab, signaling a brewing competition between these two former partners. This rivalry could reshape Solana’s DeFi landscape, especially as memecoin trading volumes have taken a nosedive since their January peak.
Alon, a co-founder of Pump.fun, welcomes the competition. “Users win at the end of the day,” he told Cointelegraph. And it’s not just Raydium in the ring; other protocols like Daos.fun, GoFundMeme, and Pumpkin are also vying for a piece of the memecoin pie.
PumpSwap isn’t stopping there. It’s planning to adopt a popular feature from rival GoFundMeme—revenue sharing with memecoin creators. Soon, a slice of protocol revenue will be shared with coin creators, aligning them with their communities and incentivizing higher quality launches.
Despite the excitement, memecoin activity has been on a decline. Successful launches on Pump.fun have dropped by 80% from January highs due to scandals that have dampened retail traders’ spirits. Consequently, Pump.fun’s average daily fee revenue plummeted from over $4 million in January to just around $100,000 by mid-March.
Memecoins had fueled explosive growth on Solana in 2024, with total value locked (TVL) skyrocketing from $1.4 billion to over $9 billion. Raydium was a major beneficiary, with daily volumes soaring from $245 million to more than $2 billion during that year.
In January, Raydium launched a leveraged perpetual futures trading platform to challenge another top Solana DeFi protocol, Jupiter. The battle for dominance in the Solana DeFi space is heating up, and with PumpSwap now in the mix, things are about to get even more interesting.
Stay tuned as this crypto saga unfolds. Who will come out on top in the memecoin arena? Only time will tell.
