Deep Dive
1. Orb Explorer Launch (November 2025)
Overview: This update introduced Orb Explorer, a live on-chain analytics dashboard. It gives users and developers real-time data on liquidity pools, trading volumes, and token performance directly within the Raydium interface.
The tool parses blockchain data to visualise metrics like fee accrual and capital efficiency, moving beyond basic swap history. This is a user-facing upgrade built on top of Raydium's existing smart contracts, designed to improve decision-making for liquidity providers and traders by making complex on-chain activity more transparent.
What this means: This is bullish for RAY because it enhances the user experience for advanced DeFi participants, potentially attracting more sophisticated capital to the protocol. Better tools can lead to more informed trading and liquidity provision, strengthening the overall ecosystem.
(Raydium)
2. V3 Beta Protocol Upgrade (July 2025)
Overview: This was Raydium's first major protocol upgrade since 2024, focusing on deep integration with Solana's decentralized order book, OpenBook. The core smart contract modifications created a hybrid liquidity model that merges AMM pools with real-time order book data.
The update introduced a new smart order routing algorithm that scans all liquidity sources to minimize slippage. For developers, it simplified permissionless pool creation with customizable fee structures. The upgrade maintained backward compatibility for existing liquidity providers through wrapper contracts.
What this means: This is bullish for RAY because it directly improves trading efficiency for users by providing access to ~40% more liquidity. Lower slippage and better prices can increase swap volume, which in turn drives more protocol fee revenue and token buybacks.
(CoinMarketCap Community)
3. LaunchLab Full Deployment (Q2 2025)
Overview: Following a split with Pump.fun, Raydium fully deployed its own token launchpad, LaunchLab, in April 2025. This codebase addition allows any project to create a token and bootstrap liquidity using a bonding curve that automatically migrates to a Raydium AMM pool upon reaching a threshold (e.g., 85 SOL).
The platform is designed for composability, offering APIs for third-party platforms to launch under their own brand. It quickly became a significant revenue source, generating $12.8M in its first full quarter (Q3 2025).
What this means: This is bullish for RAY because it vertically integrates token issuance and secondary market trading within Raydium, capturing fees along the entire lifecycle. This diversifies revenue away from just swap fees and deepens Raydium's role as Solana's core liquidity hub.
(Blockworks)
Conclusion
Raydium's development trajectory shows a clear shift from a standalone AMM to a comprehensive, vertically integrated DeFi hub, with codebase updates focused on expanding liquidity sources, capturing new revenue streams, and improving user analytics. Will the upcoming Firedancer upgrade on Solana further accelerate adoption of these core protocol improvements?