Key highlights:
- RAY token climbed to an 11-month high, gaining almost 90% in the past week
- This came after StonkFun moved new deployments onto Raydium’s LaunchLabToken launchpad
- Daily token buybacks hit $640,788 on Sept. 8, the largest single-day buyback since February 2025
- New tokenized stock listings also added trading activity on the exchange
RAY, the native token of the Raydium Solana-based DEX, has posted one of its strongest weeks in nearly a year, soaring about 90%. The coin also touched its highest price since late October last year.
Raydium pumps amid strong trading activity
The rally was mostly driven by StonkFun. This Solana-based token launchpad pairs tokens with assets like tokenized stocks, pre-IPO tokens, and ETFs instead of the usual SOL or USDC pairing.
On September 5, StonkFun began routing every token launch through Raydium’s LaunchLab. This means trades linked to those new tokens settle through its liquidity pools and generate fees for the platform.
StonkFun is now live on @Raydium LaunchLab.
All new StonkFun deployments now launch through LaunchLab, with cheaper deployment costs, reduced sniper risk, and compounding liquidity after bonding.https://t.co/Lq5IOclcO9 pic.twitter.com/8t7WKSY2XP
— Stonk (@LaunchOnSF) September 5, 2026
The change also cut deployment costs from 0.29 SOL to 0.03 SOL for token creators, which led to a surge of new launches on Raydium.
The volume increase was particularly notable. StonkFun brought in $5.88 million in revenue in the last week, placing it second among all crypto launchpads. Pons led the table with $10.46 million, with Pump.fun generating $5.59 million over the same period.
Crypto launchpad rankings. Source: DeFiLlama
Some StonkFun tokens operate in a “reward mode,” which charges a transfer tax that gets redistributed to holders in the form of whatever asset the token was paired with. Total rewards distributed through this system as of press time sit around $32 million, according to StonkFun data.
Fee-Funded buybacks hit a new high
Another key driver of this rally is the token buybacks. Raydium uses 12% of the trading fees it collects into daily purchases of RAY token on the open market.
Those tokens are then moved into a protocol-controlled wallet, permanently removing them from circulation. On September 8, the team made a buyback of $640,788 worth of RAY in a day, the largest daily purchase recorded since February 2025.
RAY daily buybacks. Source: Blockworks
For most of 2026, daily buyback totals were flat and drew little attention. They began picking up in August, then continued their momentum in the first week of September. LaunchLab itself has climbed to ninth place among all launchpads, generating $886,612 in fees over the past seven days.
Tokenized stocks also gains momentum
More than 15 tokenized U.S. stocks, including Boeing, Costco, Lululemon, Reddit, and Roblox, went live, issued by Backpack and Sunrise this week.
15+ new tokenized stocks are live on Raydium.
From Boeing and Costco to Reddit, Lulumemon, Roblox, Hims, and UPS, a new wave of U.S. equities is now trading 24/7 on Solana.
Issued by @Backpack Securities via @sunrise. pic.twitter.com/Hx1MziNURp
— Raydium (@Raydium) September 9, 2026
One newly listed token tracking Grindr’s stock saw about $11 million in trading volume in its first hour after being listed on September 10.
Data from Santiment showed new addresses joining the network hit 1,074 in a single day this week. SOL staked on the platform also reached 601,049 tokens, with DEX volume hitting 4 million tokens, DeFiLlama showed.
Source: DeFiLlama
RAY currently ranks 117th by market cap, trailing meme coin STONK, which posted a weekly gain of over 1,200%.
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