Decentralized crypto trading platform Raydium is ambitiously entering Solana’s multibillion-dollar perpetual contracts market and is rapidly gaining popularity. Their newly launched service for these widely-used derivatives contracts boasts impressive daily trading volumes of $100 million.
Raydium has quickly become the third most popular platform for trading perpetuals on Solana, following industry leaders Jupiter and Drift. This growth comes despite Raydium’s recent entry into this competitive arena, as its developers have not invested significantly in marketing efforts for the service that is still in a ‘public beta’ phase.
“Raydium brand still packs a punch,” commented InfraRAY, a key contributor to the project.
This development further establishes Raydium’s strong position in Solana’s crypto trading space. Its innovative automated market maker (AMM) structure allows users to create trading pools for virtually any asset, which has distinguished it during Solana’s memecoin boom.
However, many users of Raydium’s swap features do not directly engage with its website but rather utilize trading aggregators that distribute orders across several platforms. This could lead to reduced engagement for Raydium and arguably diminish its connection with users, the traders themselves.
In trading terminology, these users are referred to as “takers,” while those providing liquidity through Raydium’s AMM are “makers.”
InfraRAY noted, “Raydium has done well on the maker-side, but greater network effects exist when you own the relationship with the taker.”
Orderly Network, a trading initiative linked to various blockchains, supports Raydium’s trading operations, enabling users to conduct trades on a unified order book, thereby making the trading process more efficient.
The newly integrated Orderly launch has already proven beneficial, with Solana’s traders now accounting for 25% of Orderly’s overall trading volume. CEO Ran Yi explained, “We’re trading anywhere from $200 to $400 million a day in volumes across various projects linked to Orderly’s supported perpetual trading.”
Facilitating orders through Orderly, as opposed to forging transactions on-chain—an approach favored by Raydium’s more established rivals—can help save costs and improve transaction reliability, according to InfraRAY. However, it also introduces specific cross-chain challenges that need addressing.
Looking ahead, Raydium plans to fully launch its perps service soon, enhancing its marketing efforts in order to increase outreach.
Although $100 million in daily trading volume is impressive, Raydium is still far from surpassing the top-tier on-chain perps service on Solana, offered by Jupiter, which sees approximately $2 billion in daily transactions, while Drift generates twice Raydium’s volume.
Despite the substantial competition, InfraRAY remains optimistic about Raydium’s prospects, noting that its service provides access to a wider array of assets than its competitors, alongside Orderly’s rapid listing capabilities.
“I expect there to be more competition and innovation. But currently Raydium has a seat at the table.”
