One Raydium AMM pool is paying 28.3% in fees while several eight-figure TVLs print 0.0%.
Raydium-AMM right now: where the venue actually pays
We score 12 Raydium-AMM pools this week. Aggregate TVL: $92.07M. Aggregate 24h volume: $6.21M. The average fee APR across those pools is 7.3%. That average hides the real story: a barbell. On one end, SOL-USDC is doing $2.67M in 24h volume on $8.73M TVL, spitting out a 28.3% fee APR. On the other end, several meme-heavy pools are sitting on $4M–$14M with fees at 0.0% because volume is negligible.
Raydium-AMM is the original constant-product venue on Solana: permissionless listings, simple 50/50 LP, and a fixed swap fee. It’s great when flows are thick and constant. It’s dead money when they aren’t. The contrast this week is sharp enough to act on.
- Best at: catching continuous, thick flow on majors (SOL-USDC) and short, violent bursts on mid-cap memes.
- Worst at: passively farming dead pairs with big TVL and no prints; the fee engine can’t pay you if nobody trades.
Fee APR on Raydium-AMM is a flow tax. No flow, no tax, no yield.
The standouts (and why they work): SOL-USDC and one spicy outlier
1) SOL-USDC (Raydium AMM) — TVL $8.73M, 24h volume $2.67M, fee APR 28.3%, farmer score 100/100. This is the archetype of what Raydium-AMM still does extremely well. Depth is solid, routing is ubiquitous, and retail plus arb bots print transactions nearly 24/7. With a standard 0.25% trading fee on AMM swaps (per Raydium docs), LPs historically capture the lion’s share of that fee on AMM pairs. Even if you haircut to a 0.22% LP take (as documentation has long suggested for AMM pools), the math explains the yield:
Daily LP fees ≈ 2,670,000 × 0.22% = $5,874. On $8.73M TVL, that’s 0.0673%/day → ~24.6% annualized. Our tracked 28.3% suggests either a fuller 0.25% cut in this venue window, a multi-day smoothing edge, or outsized activity during the sample. The punchline is the same: fees accrue because trades happen constantly.
Compare that to SOL-USDC on Orca’s Whirlpool (concentrated) or SOL-USDC on Raydium-CLMM. CLMMs often deliver higher fee density for LPs who actively manage ranges, but the AMM can still compete on raw, hands-off uptime. If you don’t want to babysit a range in volatile tape, this is the set-and-forget cashflow.
2) SOL-jellyjelly (Raydium AMM) — TVL $4.49M, 24h volume $1.65M, fee APR 33.6%, farmer score 61/100. You don’t need to love the asset to see what’s happening. When a mid-cap memecoin actually trades, Raydium-AMM monetizes the churn well. The fee profile is even fatter than SOL-USDC on this print because spreads get wider during hype and takers are less price sensitive. The window is narrow though. If volume collapses, fee APR collapses with it.
3) Honorable mentions — MEW-SOL: $8.46M TVL on $623K daily volume yields 6.7% fee APR. BOME-SOL: $10.18M TVL on $417K yields 3.7%. RAY-USDC: $3.90M TVL on $202K yields 4.8%. All three are serviceable if you’re sizing small and timing catalysts. None justify parking large size without a view on flow.
The silent TVL problem: big pools paying nothing
Here’s the other side of the barbell:
- Old Slerf-SOL — TVL $14.58M, 24h volume $2K, fee APR 0.0%, farmer score 0/100.
- smole-SOL — TVL $13.66M, 24h volume $115, fee APR 0.0%, farmer score 0/100.
- $NAP-SOL — TVL $5.26M, 24h volume $65, fee APR 0.0%, farmer score 0/100.
- LIKE-SOL — TVL $4.44M, 24h volume $0, fee APR 0.0%, farmer score 0/100.
These are not rounding errors; they’re eight-figure LP positions with nothing to show for 24 hours of market time. This is the recurring Raydium-AMM trap in 2026: tokens that once printed have ossified into static pools. The AMM doesn’t rebalance to your benefit. It just sits there, 50/50, eating impermanent loss if the token drifts one way and paying you nothing if nobody crosses the spread.
Why does it happen?
- Permissionless listings mean anyone can seed a pool. After the hype phase ends, you’re often left as exit liquidity for occasional prints, not a fee farmer.
- Fixed fee can’t “charge up” when the pool is thin. If volume dies, your APR is zero regardless of headline TVL.
- Routing realities: Smart routers prefer deeper, cheaper paths. If your pool falls out of the routing meta, volume bleeds elsewhere and you’re stuck.
TVL is not safety. TVL with zero flow is dead capital, and on an AMM it can be worse than cash because you’re still carrying price risk without income. If you only remember one line, remember this one: fee APR is a function of actual trades, not how big the pool looks.
We’ve written this before in a different context; the math hasn’t changed. If you want a refresher on how to read risk vs. fees across Solana pools, skim our piece: Which Solana Pools Actually Pay for the Risk (And Which Don’t).
Mechanics that make Raydium-AMM reward (or punish) you
Constant product, constant fee
Raydium-AMM is a straight x*y=k market maker with a constant swap fee. Historically, AMM fees are 0.25% per trade, with the LP share the majority of that cut (see Raydium docs). That design is simple, predictable, and compatible with every aggregator on Solana. You don’t manage ranges; you provide 50/50 inventory and get paid when flow happens.
Impermanent loss is real, emissions are not
There are no emissions juicing these pools in our set; the only income is fees. If a token rips against SOL, you sell into strength and buy dips mechanically. That’s fine if fees are rich, but punishing if the token trends and the tape is quiet. On dead pools, you suffer IL without the offset of fee yield.
Routing and venue selection matter
Swaps on Solana hit multiple venues via aggregators. If your Raydium-AMM pool isn’t part of the best composite route (depth + price + fee), you won’t see volume. For majors like SOL-USDC, Raydium-AMM remains on-route because depth plus uptime keeps slippage competitive. On niche pairs, the meta can move to another venue in a day.
Operational transparency
If you need specifics, the primary sources are public: protocol documentation at docs.raydium.io and code under github.com/raydium-io. The mechanics are plain. The edge comes from positioning where other LPs aren’t, or exiting faster than they do when a pool goes quiet.
How Raydium-AMM stacks up vs CLMMs (Orca, Raydium-CLMM)
Concentrated liquidity has clearly won share on majors, but AMMs still have a role. Here’s the quick comparison with concrete links so you can eyeball live stats:
- Raydium AMM SOL-USDC: see SOL-USDC. Hands-off, paid 28.3% fee APR on our 24h window with $2.67M volume.
- Raydium CLMM SOL-USDC: see SOL-USDC. Typically higher fee density if you can keep your range tight and in-range. Operational overhead is real; out-of-range equals zero income until you rebalance.
- Orca Whirlpool SOL-USDC: see SOL-USDC. The benchmark CLMM on Solana. Usually deep enough to capture flow efficiently; passive LPs should use wide ranges or vaults to avoid going dark.
For correlated majors like SOL with staking wrappers and BTC bridges, CLMMs shine. If you want market-neutralish grind, JitoSOL-SOL, cbBTC-USDC, or even SOL-cbBTC are examples of pairs that concentrate well because the price relationship is less wild than memecoins. Raydium-AMM’s edge is the other side: minimal management for pairs that always print (SOL-USDC) and the ability to catch bursty retail action without constant range work.
My opinion, stated plainly: unless you’re timing catalysts, Raydium-AMM is a single-pool venue right now — park size in SOL-USDC if you want AMM convenience, and take memecoin risk in CLMMs or with tight sizing only.
What to actually do as an LP or trader
For LPs
- Size to flow, not to TVL. Use the last 24–72 hours of volume to compute fee APR. If the number is sub-1% annualized after your slippage and gas assumptions, do nothing.
- Keep a passive core in majors. If you want a no-maintenance fee stream, SOL-USDC on Raydium-AMM is the only thing in our set that justifies real size this week.
- Event windows for memes. For SOL-jellyjelly, MEW-SOL, BOME-SOL, watch for catalysts and treat them like 48–72 hour trades. When fees spike above 15–20% annualized on a rolling basis, participate. When they revert, exit. No nostalgia.
- Compare across venues before committing. Check concentrated alternatives for the same pair. Sometimes the same flow pays better per dollar in a CLMM if you can keep range in the action. Our Best Solana pools and Top Solana pools by TVL pages help you spot the differences in real time.
For traders
- Route-aware execution. Raydium-AMM still fills a lot of SOL-USDC flow. If you’re moving size, check slippage across AMM and CLMM routes; a 2–3 bps fee difference adds up quickly at $100K+ per clip.
- Memecoin microstructure. Spreads widen on the way down. If you fade a meme during its cool-off, the AMM fee tax plus price impact will bite twice. Scale, don’t chase.
- Watch signals, not stories. Our Opportunities feed and AI Signals surface volume inflections faster than narratives catch up. Fee APR follows volume; get early or don’t get in.
Pools to watch: two pays, two traps
- Paying now — SOL-USDC (Raydium AMM): Live at SOL-USDC. $2.67M in 24h volume on $8.73M TVL, 28.3% fee APR. This is the barbell’s heavy side.
- Paying (event-driven) — SOL-jellyjelly: $1.65M volume on $4.49M TVL, 33.6% fee APR. Great when it’s hot; don’t linger.
- Trap — Old Slerf-SOL: $14.58M TVL, $2K volume, fee APR 0.0%. This is the definition of dead capital with price risk.
- Potential, but check flow — MEW-SOL and RAY-USDC: 6.7% and 4.8% fee APR respectively on current prints. Worth a look if you see catalysts or cross-venue routing picking up.
If you need a neutral place to park outside Raydium-AMM while you wait, consider concentrated majors. For example, SOL-USDC on Whirlpool or JitoSOL-SOL keep you closer to expected value if you’re comfortable managing range width. Our cross-chain yield reference is a good sanity check when comparing risk to alternative venues: WealthVille Yields.
FAQ
What fee do Raydium-AMM LPs actually earn per trade?
Raydium-AMM charges a 0.25% swap fee on most pairs, with the majority of that fee going to LPs. Historical documentation quotes 0.22% to LPs and 0.03% to protocol/stakers. Always sanity check current behavior against live fee APRs because our observed numbers come from realized volume, not assumptions.
Why does a pool with huge TVL show 0.0% fee APR?
Because fee APR on an AMM equals fee rate times realized volume divided by TVL. If volume is near zero, the APR will round to 0.0% even on eight-figure TVL. You’re taking price risk without income; exit or reduce until volume returns.
Should I choose Raydium-AMM or a CLMM for SOL-USDC?
If you want zero maintenance and constant uptime, Raydium-AMM’s SOL-USDC is fine and currently paid 28.3% fee APR on our 24h window. If you can manage ranges, CLMMs like Orca Whirlpool or Raydium-CLMM often pay more per dollar when in-range, but you must rebalance when price moves.
How do I estimate fee APR before depositing?
Use this back-of-the-envelope: Fee APR ≈ (24h Volume × LP Fee %) ÷ TVL × 365. For example, $2.67M × 0.22% ÷ $8.73M × 365 ≈ 24.6% annualized. Compare that to your slippage risk and operational costs.
Are emissions or external rewards affecting these Raydium-AMM pools?
In the set we scored, no. Returns come from fees only. That’s why the distribution is barbelled: majors and hot memes pay, quiet pools don’t. If emissions appear, treat them as temporary and reassess when they end.
What’s the safest Raydium-AMM pool to park size?
There’s no safety in DeFi, but among AMM options this week, SOL-USDC has the most consistent flow and the clearest fee print. If you want lower maintenance and are comfortable with SOL/USD exposure, it’s the rational AMM choice right now.
