Raydium, the biggest decentralized exchange on Solana, has spent over $190 million so far to buy back its own RAY tokens, as confirmed in an update on Wednesday. The platform kicked off these buybacks early 2024, aiming to share revenue with token holders while cutting down the number of RAY tokens in circulation.
Raydium has bought back about 69.1 million RAY tokens so far, cutting down nearly 25% of its circulating supply. This update was shared by 0xINFRA, a project contributor, on X.
At the time of the update, RAY was trading close to $2.95. Based on that price, the token’s market capitalization sits around $800 million. But when factoring in the tokens that have been removed from circulation through the buyback program, the float-adjusted market cap comes down to approximately $593 million.
The buybacks are funded from a portion of the trading fees Raydium earns. In May 2025, the platform pulled in about $9.1 million in gross revenue. If that trend continues, it would bring in over $100 million annually. Out of the May revenue alone, $4.8 million was directed toward token buybacks.
That puts the protocol on pace to return around $57 million to RAY holders over a year, more than the platform’s annual RAY token emissions, which are capped at just 1.9 million.
Some skeptics opine that token buybacks don’t really add lasting value and are just for show. But with Raydium, there could be more to it. While the platform is cutting down its circulating RAY supply, it’s also steadily building up its treasury, holding around $60 million in assets like SOL, USDC, and others.
Raydium isn’t the only one taking this route. Other DeFi projects are trying similar strategies. For instance, Pump.fun, a Solana-based memecoin launchpad, has kicked off its buyback plan. On the other hand, Hyperliquid, a perpetual trading platform, puts almost 97% of its trading fee revenue into buying back its token, HYPE.
Most crypto projects keep increasing their token supply. But Raydium’s regular buybacks show it’s serious about keeping RAY’s value steady and ensuring the community benefits in the long run.
Also Read: Solana Leads in Q2 With $271M Revenue, Surpasses Tron & Ethereum
