RAY — Raydium Governance Token

About Raydium

RAY is the governance token of Raydium, one of the oldest automated market makers on Solana. Raydium launched in early 2021 and pioneered a hybrid model that combined an AMM with access to Serum's order book — an innovation that made Raydium the dominant Solana DEX for several years. Following the collapse of FTX and the resulting shutdown of Serum, Raydium rebuilt its infrastructure around a standard AMM and permissionless pool creation. Today, Raydium is one of the highest-volume Solana DEXs by daily trade count, particularly for memecoins and newly launched SPL tokens. Raydium's permissionless pool system lets anyone create a liquidity pool for any pair, which means most Solana memecoins trade primarily on Raydium pools before or instead of centralized exchanges.

Supply, distribution, and tokenomics

RAY has a historical maximum supply of 555 million tokens, though a large portion has been burned over the protocol's lifetime. Raydium's tokenomics were originally structured around liquidity mining emissions, with RAY distributed to liquidity providers in eligible pools. Beginning in 2024, Raydium restructured emissions to be more targeted, directing rewards primarily to high-value pairs and to the protocol's buyback-and-burn program, which uses a portion of protocol fee revenue to purchase RAY on the open market and burn it. This transition shifted RAY from a purely inflationary mining token toward a deflationary, fee-linked asset. As of 2026, RAY's circulating supply is materially below the original maximum, and further burns depend on Raydium's trading volume.

Use cases and ecosystem

RAY serves three functions. First, it is a governance token: holders vote on Raydium improvement proposals covering fee structures, emissions schedules, and treasury spending. Second, it is a liquidity mining reward: liquidity providers in eligible Raydium pools receive RAY rewards on top of trading fees, which incentivizes deep liquidity in specific pairs. Third, it is a fee-capture asset: Raydium's buyback-and-burn program ties RAY's supply trajectory to the protocol's trading volume, meaning greater usage of Raydium results in more RAY being purchased and burned. For most users, RAY is a way to hold exposure to Solana DEX activity, particularly on the memecoin side where Raydium dominates.

How to buy RAY on Solana

To buy RAY on Solana, connect a Solana wallet to SwapKing, select SOL or USDC as the input token, select RAY as the output, enter the amount, and click Swap. RAY/SOL and RAY/USDC are liquid pairs, with slippage typically under 0.5% for retail-sized swaps. RAY is also available on centralized exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance. The Solana mint address for RAY is 4k3Dyjzvzp8eMZWUXbBCjEvwSkkk59S5iCNLY3QrkX6R — verify this before swapping.

Risks and considerations

RAY's value depends on Raydium's continued share of Solana DEX volume, particularly in memecoin trading. Several factors could erode that position: Meteora, Orca, and PumpSwap have all grown materially in recent years; Jupiter's own routing behavior determines how much volume Raydium receives; and any shift in Solana memecoin activity away from Raydium pools would directly reduce the protocol's revenue. RAY is also exposed to the general volatility of Solana memecoin markets, which are prone to sharp cycles. SwapKing is non-custodial and does not manage any of these risks.

Where to go next

Swap RAY on Solana directly on this page. For a deeper look at the RAY market, review the SOL to RAY and RAY to SOL pair pages. For context on how Solana prices and routing are measured, see Methodology. If you are new to Solana, start with How to Swap Tokens on Solana.

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