Solana’s explosive start to 2025 – in terms of network activity, if not in token price – has been driven by a host of catalysts from the juggernaut that is Pump.fun to the launch of Donald Trump’s personal memecoin. But there’s been another overlooked factor responsible for boosting onchain volumes that looks likely to become a major growth area on the Solana network this year – perps.
Solana perpetual futures are rapidly gaining market share, both as a proportion of total onchain trading volume and as a percentage of all onchain perps action, eating into the dominance of EVM chains. Credit for this uptick in Solana perps lies at the door of Raydium in particular, which is aiming to position itself as the best-placed protocol to capture perpetual futures following its integration of Orderly.
With Raydium providing the interface and user base and Orderly supplying the liquidity courtesy of its cross-chain order book, the stage is set for a year of record-breaking futures trading on Solana.
Orderly Fuels Raydium’s Ascent
Orderly’s recent integration into Raydium has supercharged perps volumes, proving that Solana is no longer just an L1 for memecoins and spot trading, but a serious contender in DeFi derivatives. Since integrating with Raydium at the start of January, Orderly has been in the ascendancy, as demonstrated by monthly trading volume for its $ORDER token having surged by 157% by January 23, approaching daily volume of $190 million.
Meanwhile, Raydium’s own trading volume neared $100 billion for the month, cementing its position as the most dominant DEX on Solana. Where do you go next when you’ve conquered spot trading on Solana? To perps of course, where there’s still fertile soil to claim and market share to gain. And it’s on this frontier that Raydium now believes its growth prospects lie, aided by Orderly’s infra, which has given Raydium users to around 97 new markets.
Solana Perps Find Their Stride
Historically, perpetuals trading has been dominated by EVM-based protocols like GMX, aided by the deep stablecoin liquidity that is in plentiful supply on Ethereum. But that dynamic is quickly changing now that Orderly has connected Solana with the bulk of the leading EVM chains, uniting them through a single order book.
The benefits this is engendering for Solana traders were highlighted by Blockworks Research, which recently pointed out that if just 12% of Raydium’s volume shifts to perps, Orderly’s volume could increase six-fold. This potential upside shows just how much untapped demand exists for high-speed, low-cost perps on Solana – and why Orderly’s infrastructure could be the key to unlocking it. Orderly’s unified liquidity pool is ideally suited to enhancing trading efficiency, supplying deeper liquidity, and delivering tighter spreads.
While it’s not married exclusively to Raydium on Solana – Orderly’s tech stack can be used by any DEX or protocol that wishes to take advantage of it – it appears that for now the two partners are content to continue collaborating closely. Orderly’s perps layer is currently pulling in $1-200M in daily volume, a respectable baseline but one the omnichain protocol will be hoping to grow further as the year unfolds.
Raydium’s Winning Streak Continues
Raydium’s dominance isn’t just reflected in trading volume: its native token, $RAY, has also surged over 50% in a month, mirroring the protocol’s impressive expansion. While memecoins like $TRUMP and $MELANIA have drawn attention to Solana in 2025, Raydium has been quietly ensuring that Solana’s DeFi stack is capable of keeping pace with its speculative trading frenzy.
The role Pump.fun is playing in boosting Raydium’s total fees and volume can’t be overlooked either. As much as $3B in daily volume on Raydium can be attributed to Pump.fun tokens. While the half-life of these new tokens is often rapid, the high churn rate hasn’t slowed the desire among Solana degens to ape into the latest catcoins, AI agents, and memecoins themed around everything from 90s brands to Trump family members.
The partnership between Orderly and Raydium has laid a solid foundation for the year ahead, proving that well-structured integrations can deliver substantial organic growth. With trading volumes accelerating and user engagement increasing, both protocols are well-positioned to dominate Solana’s derivatives landscape in 2025.
