Raydium AMM In-Depth Analysis: Innovations of Solana's Top DEX and Outlook for 2026

As of January 14, 2026, Raydium’s native token RAY is priced at $1.23, up approximately 4.57% in the past 24 hours.

As the liquidity cornerstone of the Solana ecosystem, Raydium has long handled over 60% of the total DEX volume on the chain.

01 Raydium: The Liquidity Backbone of the Solana Ecosystem

Raydium is not the first decentralized exchange on Solana, but it is the first innovator to combine automated market makers with order book depth.

At launch in 2021, Raydium adopted a hybrid model that allowed idle funds in its liquidity pools to automatically provide liquidity to Serum, the main centralized limit order book on Solana at the time.

This design means that Raydium’s liquidity pools can serve both its own AMM swaps and traders across the entire order book ecosystem, achieving liquidity sharing and improved capital efficiency.

02 Technological Innovation: Hybrid AMM and Fibonacci Allocation

Raydium’s core technological innovation lies in its hybrid AMM model and integration with OpenBook.

Unlike traditional AMMs like Uniswap, Raydium’s pools can perform simple constant product market making and, through programmed strategies, “deposit” liquidity into the OpenBook order book.

One of the most ingenious designs is Fibonacci liquidity distribution. This mechanism uses the Fibonacci sequence to strategically place limit orders on the order book.

For example, placing dense small orders near the current market price to ensure low slippage, and larger orders at Fibonacci ratio levels (such as 23.6%, 38.2%) farther from the market price to provide deep liquidity and absorb large trading impacts.

03 Market Evolution and Current Landscape

Raydium’s development is closely tied to the Solana ecosystem, especially the rise and fall of meme coins. From 2023 to 2024, Solana became the hotspot for meme coin mania, and the rise of Pump.fun platform completely changed the game.

This platform partnered with Raydium, stipulating that all tokens issued on Pump.fun, once reaching a market cap of $69,000, would automatically create a liquidity pool on Raydium with an initial injection of $12,000.

This cooperation allowed Raydium to capture massive liquidity from new tokens. Statistics show that at peak, over 90% of Pump.fun tokens were ultimately traded on Raydium.

However, the market continues to evolve. In March 2025, Pump.fun launched its own AMM — PumpSwap, directing mature tokens to its platform. This move directly diverted trading volume and revenue from Raydium.

04 Competition and Challenges: The Rise of Market Makers

Currently, the Solana DEX landscape is undergoing a profound paradigm shift. Active market makers like HumidiFi and SolFi are rapidly emerging.

These AMMs no longer rely on passive liquidity providers but are instead protocol-native market makers, utilizing oracles to fetch real-time prices from major exchanges and actively, frequently updating on-chain quotes.

This model shows significant advantages on high-liquidity trading pairs like SOL/USDC and SOL/USDT, offering tighter spreads and lower slippage. Currently, active market makers account for over 50% of Solana’s spot trading volume.

Market analysis indicates that the future will see a division of labor: active market makers leading high-liquidity mainstream assets, while traditional AMMs like Raydium focus more on long-tail assets and token issuance stages.

05 RAY Token: Economic Model and Recent Performance

RAY is the native utility token of the Raydium protocol, with a total supply of 55 million tokens. Its uses include governance voting, staking for rewards, and as a value capture tool for protocol fees.

According to an article on the Gate learning platform, RAY reached a historical high of $16.93 in September 2021, then declined with market adjustments, hitting a low of $0.13 at the end of 2022.

Recently, RAY’s price has shown signs of recovery. As of the latest data on January 14, 2026, its price is $1.2289. Over the past month, its price started around $0.97, with a significant increase.

The token’s economic model incorporates a continuous deflation mechanism: 0.03% of trading fees are used to buy back and burn RAY on the market. Additionally, holders can stake RAY to share in protocol revenue, with an annualized yield of about 4.45%.

Overview of RAY core data as of January 14, 2026

• Current Price: As of January 14, 2026, RAY is priced at $1.23, with a 24-hour increase of 4.57%.
• Market Cap and Circulating Supply: Approximate market cap is $328.7 million, with about 268.6 million tokens in circulation.
• Trading Activity: Over $45.78 million traded in the past 24 hours, indicating good market activity.
• Price Range: The day’s price fluctuated between $1.16 and $1.25.

Future Outlook

Faced with fierce competition in the DEX market, Raydium’s path is clear: to solidify its role as the main gateway for long-tail assets and innovative token launches on Solana.

As of January 14, RAY’s price remains above $1.23, with active daily trading volume. With major trading platforms like Coinbase continuously opening trading, RAY’s arena has expanded from a single on-chain ecosystem to the broader global cryptocurrency market.