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What is LaunchLab?
LaunchLab is a platform that helps create and launch new tokens, specifically targeting developers and users within the Solana ecosystem. It offers three types of joint curves (linear, exponential, and logarithmic) to dynamically adjust token prices and liquidity based on market demand, making token issuance simpler and more flexible. Additionally, LaunchLab allows third-party applications (UIs) to set their own fees, providing developers with greater freedom. The platform not only supports Solana’s native token, SOL, but will also support various other quoted tokens and integrate with Raydium’s liquidity management tools to ensure long-term stability of transaction fees for token issuers.
Why Launch LaunchLab?
The backdrop of this move is that the meme coin issuance platform Pump.fun recently announced its development of an automated market maker (AMM), effectively ending its informal partnership with Raydium. Pump.fun’s AMM plan raised concerns among investors about a significant decline in Raydium’s revenue, as Pump.fun’s meme coins had accounted for 41% of Raydium’s trading fee revenue over the past 30 days.
As a result of this shift, Raydium’s native token plummeted by 25% in February, reflecting market concerns about its future revenue. However, Raydium still holds strong financial power. According to data from Blockworks Research, Raydium’s balance sheet holds approximately $168 million in funds, which provides Raydium with the resources to quickly respond to market changes, such as rapidly developing LaunchLab to compete with Pump.fun. Although Pump.fun’s internal AMM plan had already circulated within the Solana community, Raydium chose to launch LaunchLab after competition intensified, showing its determination to retain market dominance.
Raydium’s Position
Raydium’s core contributor, Infra, revealed that the development of LaunchLab actually began months ago but was not made public at that time because Raydium did not want to be seen as directly competing with its partners. However, the news of Pump.fun launching its own AMM led Raydium to change its strategy and decide to release LaunchLab as an alternative solution.
Infra emphasized that LaunchLab is not intended to replace Pump.fun or other platforms, but rather to offer a more convenient option for teams that do not want to develop token issuance tools from scratch and for Pump.fun users who prefer Raydium’s liquidity pools (especially its AMM v4 version). Raydium believes that Pump.fun’s success is partly due to its infrastructure support, but LaunchLab is not aimed at “defeating” Pump.fun, but at providing another choice.
Overall, the launch of LaunchLab marks an upgrade in the competition in the token issuance field within the Solana ecosystem, offering more choices for developers and users, but it may also intensify market fragmentation.