Solana’s AMM leader quickly becomes third-largest perpetuals platform despite minimal marketing

Raydium, already dominating Solana’s automated market maker (AMM) space, is making waves in the blockchain’s lucrative perpetuals market with remarkable early success.

In just one month since soft-launching its perpetuals trading service, Raydium is processing approximately $100 million in daily trading volume. This rapid growth has positioned it as Solana’s third-largest perpetuals platform, trailing only behind ecosystem heavyweights Jupiter and Drift.

What makes this achievement more impressive is that Raydium hasn’t officially launched the service yet—it remains in public beta with minimal marketing support.

“Raydium brand still packs a punch,” noted InfraRAY, a core contributor to the project, highlighting the protocol’s established reputation within the Solana ecosystem.

From AMM Leader to Perps Contender

Raydium’s expansion into perpetuals trading—derivatives contracts that let traders speculate on price movements without owning the underlying assets—builds on its existing strength in Solana’s decentralized trading landscape. The protocol has been instrumental during Solana’s memecoin surge, with its AMM infrastructure enabling anyone to create trading pools for virtually any asset.

Despite its success, most traders interact with Raydium indirectly through aggregators that distribute orders across multiple platforms. This arrangement limits Raydium’s direct relationship with users.

“Raydium has done well on the maker-side,” InfraRAY explained, referring to liquidity providers. “But greater network effects exist when you own the relationship with the taker,” he added, pointing to the advantages of connecting directly with traders executing orders.

Orderly Network Partnership Fuels Growth

Powering Raydium’s perpetuals offering is Orderly Network, a cross-chain trading infrastructure provider. Orderly enables traders from various blockchains to access a unified order book, creating smoother trading conditions.

The partnership has benefited both parties significantly. Solana-based perpetuals traders now account for 25% of Orderly’s total volume.

“We’re trading anywhere from $200 to $400 million a day in volumes” across approximately two dozen projects using Orderly’s infrastructure, according to Ran Yi, CEO of Orderly Network.

Using Orderly’s off-chain infrastructure instead of processing transactions directly on-chain—as many competitors do—offers cost and reliability advantages, according to InfraRAY. However, he acknowledged that cross-chain integration presents challenges that are still being addressed.

Looking Ahead to Official Launch

Raydium plans to officially launch its perpetuals service in the coming weeks, shedding its “public beta” status. The team intends to ramp up marketing efforts once the full launch occurs.

Even with its current $100 million daily trading volume, Raydium remains far behind market leader Jupiter, which processes nearly $2 billion daily in perpetuals trades. The second-place competitor, Drift, handles about twice Raydium’s volume.

Nevertheless, InfraRAY remains optimistic about Raydium’s prospects. The protocol offers trading for significantly more assets than its competitors, and Orderly’s infrastructure allows for quick listing of new contracts—enabling Raydium to rapidly enter emerging markets.

“I expect there to be more competition and innovation. But currently Raydium has a seat at the table,” InfraRAY stated.

As Solana’s DeFi ecosystem continues evolving, Raydium appears well-positioned to capitalize on the growing perpetuals market, potentially challenging the current market leaders.