Built on the Solana blockchain, Raydium is one of the latest Solana apps to see a surge in adoption. Raydium is an automated market maker (AMM) that facilitates near-instant token swaps, deep liquidity, and frictionless yield opportunities with the native RAY token. Also, the Raydium AcceleRaytor platform is a launchpad for emerging Decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. Furthermore, the Raydium ecosystem boasts a broad range of features and services, including Raydium Swap, Raydium Farming, and Raydium Fusion Pools.

In this article, we’re going to dive deep into the Raydium ecosystem and explore the numerous features on offer. This includes the RAY token, Raydium Swap, Raydium Farming, the AcceleRaytor launchpad, and automated market makers (AMMs).

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What is Raydium?

Built on the Solana blockchain, Raydium is an automated market maker (AMM) and on-chain order book built on the Solana blockchain. Leveraging the order book and depth of Serum, a popular decentralized exchange (DEX) also built on Solana, Raydium facilitates ultra-fast token swaps and trades. Plus, Raydium boasts advanced yield earning functionalities using shared liquidity. Furthermore, Raydium finds the best possible prices for token swaps by routing orders through either a liquidity pool, or via the Serum order book.

What is an Automated Market Maker (AMM)?

Automated market makers (AMMs) are an essential feature of the DeFi ecosystem. They use liquidity pools and liquidity providers to enable permissionless token swaps at any time. First, liquidity providers deposit digital assets into a liquidity pool. The prices for these assets are kept up to date using oracles that feed real-time data to AMMs.

Traditionally, the trading of assets relies on a market of buyers and sellers. With crypto, these trades rely on a centralized entity or crypto exchange that enables buyers and sellers to set prices for buying and selling.

However, automated market makers (AMMs) work much differently. Using smart contracts, AMMs allow for automatic swaps without intermediaries. Also, as AMMs use liquidity pools, buy and sell orders do not need to be matched. Either the tokens are available and liquid, or they are not.

Moreover, AMMs have changed the way buyers and sellers interact, becoming an essential component of decentralized finance (DeFi). Users of AMMs usually pay a transaction fee to the network. However, users of AMMs can buy and sell tokens using non-custodial wallets. Furthermore, AMMs do not require the same know your customer (KYC) regulations as centralized crypto exchanges.

The RAY Token

The RAY token is the native utility token of the Raydium platform and provides holders with several benefits. Firstly, RAY token holders can stake RAY tokens to earn protocol fees. Secondly, holders can stake the RAY token to receive allocations to token launch events. Thirdly, the RAY token will be used for protocol governance, giving the Raydium community the chance to vote on proposals to make changes to the protocol. Also, liquidity providers can earn RAY tokens by providing liquidity to liquidity pools known as “Raydium farms”.

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Following the mainnet launch in February 2021, 555 million RAY tokens were minted at genesis. Over the next three years, an allocation of 34% of all RAY tokens will go towards liquidity mining incentives. Also, 30% of all RAY tokens are put aside for partnerships and expansion of the Raydium ecosystem, including project grants and community incentives. According to CoinGecko, at the time of writing, the RAY token is trading at around $4.22, with a market cap of $247 million and a circulating supply of 58.7 million.

The Raydium Ecosystem

The Raydium ecosystem combines several useful features, making it a one-stop shop for the modern DeFi user. Below are some of the most prominent products and services that make up the diverse Raydium ecosystem.

SPL Wallet

To interact with the Raydium ecosystem, users must first download a Solana Program Library (SPL) wallet. The SPL wallet is essential for storing tokens on the Solana blockchain and interacting with the Raydium platform. As with Ethereum-based decentralized exchanges (DEXs), users must hold an amount of the native SOL tokens in their SPL wallet to pay for transaction fees. 

Among the most popular SPL wallets are Phantom, and ​Sollet.io. Phantom is a Web3 wallet browser extension with a simple, sleek user interface (UI). This makes Phantom ideal for new users. The Serum team created Sollet.io specifically for use with Serum-based products and services.

Raydium Swap

Raydium Swap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that facilitates near-instant token swaps via Serum. The Raydium Swap user interface (UI) is very similar to that of Uniswap. Also, Raydium Swap enables users to access multi-chain liquidity for a range of tokens. Plus, users can select a liquidity pool they wish to use to make token swaps. In addition, Raydium Swap finds the most cost-effective order routing for token swaps by choosing between liquidity pools or the Serum order book for trade execution.

Raydium Trade

Raydium Trade boasts advanced trading features, including limit orders and order book visualizations. This provides a familiar trading experience for anyone accustomed to trading on professional trading platforms such as Binance. 

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Raydium Farming

There are several ways to earn a yield through the various Raydium farming features. Firstly, users can provide liquidity to Raydium pools. This enables users to earn RAY tokens along with liquidity provider (LP) tokens. Plus, LP tokens can be staked to earn even more RAY tokens while securing the network through Raydium farming! 

Also, users can participate in Raydium farming with both RAY-only pools and multi-chain “Fusion” pools. RAY-only pools distribute RAY token rewards, while Fusion pools payout different project token rewards. Moreover, Raydium farming provides a simple way to earn a passive income with crypto.

AcceleRaytor

AcceleRaytor is a crypto launchpad and incubator platform for up-and-coming Solana projects. Through AcceleRaytor, the Solana community can gain early access to new projects. Plus, AcceleRaytor gives new projects a way to raise capital, incentivizing adoption with early access token launches.

AcceleRaytor is the latest in a range of many crypto launchpads, including TrustSwap, Polkastarter, Binance Launchpad, UniLayer, and many more! This token launch model has seen tremendous demand in recent months. Not only do crypto launchpads give the crypto community a chance to get in at the ground level, but they also make raising capital for new projects much easier than it has been historically. Moreover, this type of fundraising model creates an even playing field for new crypto projects by providing an equitable and accessible way to raise capital.

Only1

Created on the Solana blockchain, Only1 is a Solana app that launched via the AcceleRaytor platform. As the first social non-fungible token (NFT) platform built on the Solana blockchain, Only1 combines an NFT marketplace with social media. Powered by the native LIKE token, Only1 provides fans with a new way of connecting with their favorite content creators. Creators can mint new NFTs, which can be sold on the Only1 NFT marketplace. Also, users of the platform can earn LIKE token rewards by staking the token to secure the network.

With a starting price of $0.06, the LIKE token initial DEX offering (IDO) took place on August 3rd, 2021, via AcceleRaytor. Also, the LIKE token features on the Raydium Swap interface and in a LIKE-USDC liquidity pool.

Raydium Community

The Raydium community provides several avenues for earning RAY tokens and promoting the adoption of the project. Members can participate in various community incentives, including Project Raydiate. Project Raydiate enables the Raydium community to earn rewards by completing social media interactions and content creation challenges. From liking and retweeting posts to creating original Raydium artwork, there are many ways to participate in the Raydium community. 

Also, dedicated community members can become ”RAYgional Ambassadors”. This gives the community exclusive access to the Raydium team group. Also, RAYgional Ambassadors earn monthly RAY token rewards for their contribution to the Raydium community. This could be through interacting with users on social media, content creation, or translation of products and services offered through Raydium.

Why Use Raydium?

Many automated market makers (AMMs) and decentralized applications (dApps) can only access liquidity from their native pools and have no central order book. Also, dApps that operate on Ethereum are often costly to use when gas fees are high, and the network is congested. 

However, because Raydium uses the Solana blockchain, it is much faster and cheaper than many AMM DeFi protocols. Also, because Raydium can access liquidity from the Serum ecosystem, it provides users with high levels of liquidity.

Furthermore, Raydium provides advanced trading features that many seasoned traders have become accustomed to. This includes setting limit orders and accessing TradingView charts. As such, the platform provides a familiar trading experience for many crypto traders.   

Another reason people are attracted to projects built on Solana is the high throughput, fast block confirmations, and average transaction fees of less than $0.01. Moreover, thanks to the use of Serum's liquidity and central limit order book, Raydium users gain access to the liquidity of the whole Serum ecosystem. 

Along with a host of professional trading features, this provides a trading experience similar to that of a centralized exchange. However, no centralized entity holds custody of your assets, nor can accounts be banned or censored.

What is Raydium and the RAY Token? Summary 

Raydium is one of many Solana apps to see huge adoption soon after launching. For several years, most prominent decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and automated market makers (AMMs) were built on Ethereum. Naturally, as the most widely used and robust smart contract-enabled blockchain, this makes sense. Now, there are many DEXs and AMMs to choose from on multiple blockchains. By launching on the Solana blockchain, not only does Raydium benefit from ultra-fast transactions, but it also cuts out expensive gas fees.

Raydium offers a comprehensive suite of decentralized finance (DeFi) services. Also, the platform provides users with several avenues for earning a passive income through staking and liquidity provision via Raydium Farming. Plus, the addition of Fusion Pools harnesses liquidity from the expanding Raydium ecosystem, helping to bootstrap partner projects. Furthermore, the AcceleRaytor launchpad makes it easy for partner projects to get ahead by being included in Fusion Pools.

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