In the fast-paced world of blockchain and meme tokens, staying ahead means understanding the infrastructure that powers it all. Recently, 0xInfra, a core contributor at Raydium, shared some eye-opening insights on building the platform's revenue flywheel. This came via a tweet highlighting key discussions from Safary's Revenue Series, where 0xInfra broke down Raydium's impressive $120M+ revenue in 2025 so far, strategies for surviving market slumps, and transforming operational challenges into profitable opportunities.

For those new to the scene, Raydium is an automated market maker (AMM) on the Solana blockchain. Think of an AMM as a smart contract that lets users swap tokens without needing a traditional order book—it's like a decentralized vending machine for crypto assets. Raydium has become the go-to spot for launching and trading meme tokens on Solana, thanks to its efficient liquidity pools and low fees.

0xInfra's Role and Raydium's Evolution

As the leader of Reactor Labs, 0xInfra oversees Raydium's core development, upgrades, business development, and investor relations. A big part of the focus now is on creating sustainable revenue streams on Solana and sharing that story with the market. Raydium started as Solana's first permissionless market maker, blending AMM liquidity with an on-chain order book for better trades. Today, it's expanded to support swaps, perpetuals (futures-like contracts), and even real-world assets (RWAs), which are tokenized versions of things like stocks or real estate.

The user base has shifted too. Early on, it was mostly DeFi farmers chasing yields—people providing liquidity to earn rewards. Now, it's teams launching consumer apps and tokens, including the wild world of meme coins. Many launchpads have moved their liquidity to Raydium, making it a hub for token generation events (TGEs), where new projects distribute their tokens.

How Raydium Generates Revenue

Raydium's money-making machine is clever. The core comes from protocol revenue on swap fees. Unlike most AMMs where all fees go to liquidity providers (LPs), Raydium takes a cut, creating steady cash flow. This also funds buybacks of their native token, RAY, making it deflationary—supply decreases over time, potentially boosting value.

But the real game-changer? Pool creation fees, rolled out in late 2023. With the memecoin craze exploding, daily pool creations jumped from about 100 to over 15,000. (A liquidity pool is basically a pot of tokens that enables trading pairs.) This surge overloaded infrastructure, so Raydium added a small upfront fee to curb spam. What started as a fix turned into a goldmine: 300K SOL (around $40M USD) in revenue so far. They tweak these fees, waiving them for key partners or bonding curve launches—a method where token prices rise as more are bought, popular for fair meme token distributions.

This is huge for meme token enthusiasts. The fee structure not only funds Raydium but also filters out low-quality launches, potentially leading to healthier ecosystems for serious meme projects.

The Growth Flywheel in Action

Raydium runs a three-sided marketplace: asset issuers (like meme token creators), liquidity providers, and traders. It starts with capturing new asset launches—memecoins, RWAs, you name it. This draws in liquidity, which attracts traders seeking smooth swaps. Hits like Dogwifhat and Popcat kickstarted this in late 2023, leading to trillions in trading volume through Raydium pools. For meme token builders, this means Raydium isn't just a trading venue; it's the launchpad that can amplify your project's reach.

Navigating Ups and Downs

Raydium's journey wasn't all smooth. In 2021, they nailed product-market fit with their hybrid AMM and even ran an accelerator for projects. But post-FTX crash in late 2022, Solana volumes tanked, hitting the treasury hard. They slashed expenses by 80%, bet big on Solana, and rebuilt during the bear market—upgrading infrastructure and adding features like constant-liquidity pools.

By late 2023, memecoin surges and the pool fee innovation flipped the script. Volumes skyrocketed, boosting trading fee revenue and buybacks. In 2025, they're refining this with smarter buyback schedules and using fees for bid-side liquidity (supporting buy orders to stabilize prices).

Incentives and Profitability Balance

Emissions (reward distributions) are now capped, keeping Raydium net deflationary. Incentives target cold starts for new features, like the Launch Lab's bonding curves, but only if they lead to real revenue. This pragmatic approach ensures long-term sustainability, which is key in the volatile meme token space where hype can fade fast.

Looking Ahead

Raydium aims to be the ultimate partner for innovative projects on Solana— not just liquidity, but the first stop for listing, swapping, and discovering assets. As Solana grows, so does Raydium. For blockchain practitioners and meme token creators, this means more tools and opportunities to build and thrive.

If you're diving into Solana memes or DeFi, check out the full insights in Safary's thread. It's a reminder that behind the memes, smart infrastructure plays are what drive real value in crypto. Stay tuned to Meme Insider for more on how platforms like Raydium are shaping the future of meme tokens.