90% of Revenue from Meme Coins, Yet Valuation Rivals Pump: What Should Meteora Be Worth?

The market has underestimated Meteora's role as a liquidity base for Solana memecoins.

Written by: Kunal Doshi

Compiled by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News

For a long time, there have been calls for the end of memecoins, yet every time the market warms up, trading volumes surge again. Since March 2024, memecoins have consistently accounted for over 10% of DEX trading volume, making it one of the most sticky trading volumes on-chain. The reason is simple: for ordinary traders, memecoins remain one of the few places to achieve asymmetric returns overnight. Most people lose money, yet the demand persists.

Solana is the center of memecoin trading volume, and Meteora is one of the leading DEXs on Solana. Betting on Meteora is essentially betting on the speculative demand for memecoins. However, this sector is brutal. PumpSwap and Raydium benefit from launchpads, with tokens graduating directly to their own DEXs, keeping the trading volume internal. Meteora lacks its own large launchpad but carves out a niche market on mature memecoins: providing the best execution and liquidity for those memecoins that have escaped mutual liquidation and gained some legitimacy.

The core judgment is: Meteora cannot win the PvP stage volume, but any mature memecoin that emerges from a Solana launchpad will ultimately form liquidity on Meteora. The DLMM pool has since captured most of the traffic for these coins. PUMP and RAY can also bet on Solana memecoins, but Meteora's FDV is only $370 million. The market has underestimated its role as a liquidity base for Solana memecoins, making the upside more attractive.

Solana Memecoin Liquidity Battle: Pump Before Graduation, Meteora After Maturity

Solana accounts for 35% to 40% of DEX trading volume in most months. Even with the rise of Robinhood chain activities in September, this pattern has not changed. Weekly data for 2026 shows that memecoins' activity on Solana has significantly rebounded: in the past week, they accounted for 37% of DEX trading volume, while the low in June was only 10%. Behind this rebound are the increases in ANSEM in June, the rise of meme stock trading pairs, and, more importantly, an improvement in market risk appetite.

Excluding memecoins, Solana's DEX trading volume is mainly composed of SOL stablecoins and stablecoin exchanges, dominated by propAMM. Project tokens and tokenized assets still only account for about 15% of the weekly trading volume.

When excluding propAMM and focusing solely on memecoins, Pump accounts for nearly 70% in most weeks. Further excluding Pump, Meteora ranks second in most weeks until mid-July when Raydium regained market share through Stonkfun.

The advantages of Pump and Raydium are structural. Tokens on Pumpfun graduate to PumpSwap, and recently, tokens on Stonk have also entered Raydium, with most PvP trading naturally remaining on their own platforms. The question then becomes: since Pump and Raydium appear to be purer growth targets for Pumpfun and Stonk, why bet on Meteora?

The answer lies in the earlier discussion: Meteora cannot win PvP volume, but any mature memecoin from a Solana launchpad will ultimately end up on Meteora. The pools there provide competitive execution for these memes and capture a significant portion of the traffic from that point onward.

Growth Engine: Trading Volume Rebounds 2.4 Times, Memecoins Contribute 90% of Revenue

Meteora's weekly trading volume has rebounded approximately 2.4 times from its low in early August, rising from $630 million per week to about $1.5 billion. A large part of this rebound comes from increased SOL stablecoin trading volume after the market recovery, but memecoins remain the primary source, accounting for 30% to 45% in recent weeks.

Meteora currently has four types of liquidity products. The earliest is DAMM v1, which operates similarly to traditional AMMs, with liquidity evenly distributed across an infinite price range; an additional feature is that idle funds are automatically routed to external lending protocols on Solana, generating extra income for LPs.

In early 2024, DLMM was launched, introducing concentrated liquidity based on price ranges and being one of the first to use dynamic fees in Solana DEXs. It allows funds to be highly concentrated, achieving zero slippage trading within specific price ranges, with fees adjusting as volatility increases.

In April 2025, DAMM v2 was launched. It distributes liquidity evenly like a regular AMM, but anyone can create pools and customize rates based on asset volatility or their own needs. Liquidity positions can also be represented as position NFTs, supporting targeted incentives and allowing active positions to be smoothly transferred to another wallet.

Subsequently, DBC was introduced, which stands for Dynamic Combined Curve. Any third-party launchpad on Solana can integrate it to support fair issuance and prevent sniper trading. Once the combined curve's goals are achieved, 100% of the liquidity automatically migrates to the DAMM v2 pool and is permanently locked.

Most trading volume comes from the DLMM pool, which is not surprising. The bin system of DLMM allows every dollar of funds to achieve zero slippage within the range, and aggregators like Jupiter almost always prioritize DLMM pools over standard AMMs.

More critically, the revenue structure is noteworthy. Memecoins account for less than half of Meteora's total trading volume in most weeks but contribute over 90% of the protocol's revenue.

The reason is straightforward. The fee rates for pools of mainstream coins like SOL are typically around 0.01% to remain competitive. Memecoins face traders who are insensitive to price and are willing to pay higher fees. DLMM also has a dual fee structure: a base fee is selected when creating the pool, and a variable fee is added when volatility is high, while memecoins often exist in a high-volatility state. Essentially, Meteora is leveraging the characteristics of memecoin trading to capture more revenue.

Interestingly, this fee structure has not deterred traders. This is because Meteora's underlying architecture simultaneously provides highly efficient trading routing within the ecosystem.

Winning in Routing: Fomo and Jupiter Route 30% of Memecoin Traffic to Meteora

To test Meteora's execution on memes, the best way is to see how much memecoin trading volume platforms like Jupiter and Fomo route to Meteora. These platforms send each transaction to the DEX with the best execution.

Fomo has emerged as a standout consumer application during this cycle, with nearly 50,000 active traders on Solana, over 65% of fees coming from Solana. The most notable data is that in most weeks, Meteora accounts for 30% of Fomo's Solana memecoin trading volume.

Fomo's weekly trading volume on Solana has grown rapidly since July, with memecoins accounting for 40% of it. However, Fomo still only accounts for 8% of Solana's memecoin trading volume, up from only 2% in April, indicating room for growth. If Meteora can continue to maintain its execution advantage relative to other DEXs, it can become a strong liquidity alternative for betting on Fomo's growth. Pump is also an option, but Meteora's valuation is only a fraction of Pump's, as detailed in the valuation analysis later.

Jupiter is another important routing entry on Solana. In the past week, its DEX aggregator accounted for 27% of Solana's spot DEX trading volume. Memecoins only account for 10% to 15% of Jupiter's aggregator trading volume, but Meteora still captures a significant share, often between 25% and 35% in most weeks.

Why does Meteora capture more memecoin volume than other Solana DEXs despite lacking its own large launchpad? The answer lies in its AMM design.

Why DLMM Continues to Win Volume

Focus on the DLMM pool, as it contributes significantly to Meteora's total trading volume and memecoin trading volume. PumpSwap still dominates the overall volume since most Solana memes are issued on Pumpfun and directly enter its pool after graduation. However, as tokens mature, liquidity is beginning to form in Meteora, allowing DLMM to concentrate funds around the current price.

Looking at the top 20 tokens that launched and traded on both Meteora and PumpSwap in the past 30 days, Meteora captured at least 20% of the trading volume in most trading pairs. For popular tokens like ANSEM, BATON, and PAID, Meteora captured as much as 63%.

Using the same method to analyze Raydium, Meteora's advantage in memecoins is even more pronounced. Raydium clearly dominates in tokenized assets and project tokens like CARDS, but Meteora holds a significant share in memecoins. STONK and SI completed 64% and 73% of their trading volume on Meteora, respectively, despite graduating from Raydium.

The DLMM and Raydium's CLMM products are quite similar, with Raydium's CLMM even supporting optional volatility fees. Why does DLMM perform better? Three differences can explain this.

First, DLMM divides liquidity into bins, with each bin providing tokens at a fixed price. Trades are executed at that price until the liquidity in the bin is exhausted. In a CLMM, prices gradually move as liquidity is consumed through trades. For trades that can fit into a single bin, DLMM executes better; large trades spanning multiple bins ultimately still depend on fees and available depth.

Second, DLMM makes it easier for LPs to precisely choose the location of their funds: they can place more liquidity near the current price to earn fees, accumulate below, and gradually sell above. Raydium's CLMM can achieve a similar distribution through multiple positions, but DLMM's bin structure and built-in strategies make this much simpler. This flexibility helps LPs maintain depth where actual trades occur.

The DLMM Launch pool allows token creators to control liquidity distribution at the time of issuance. They can shape the liquidity curve to encourage natural trading while retaining enough liquidity to support larger price fluctuations.

Third, LPs in a standard DLMM pool retain 90% of trading fees, while Raydium's CLMM retains 84%. For every $1,000 in trading fees, DLMM LPs receive $900, while Raydium LPs receive $840.

The result of these differences is that, for most tokens, Meteora's effective fee rate is significantly higher than Raydium's. Volatility fees further increase charges during high speculation periods. Despite higher fees, Meteora still captures a large trading volume. Routing services like Jupiter calculate the total costs for traders, directing trades to the pools with the best final prices after fees and slippage. Meteora continues to win a significant amount of traffic, indicating that its execution stands firm on all-in costs. The bin-based liquidity layout of DLMM clearly helps it maintain competitiveness.

In 10 out of 12 samples, Meteora generates higher trading volume per dollar of TVL. Coupled with higher effective fee rates and lower protocol cuts, LPs earn more fee income relative to their principal. This provides LPs with reasons to provide liquidity on Meteora, supporting better execution and attracting more trading volume.

Token Economics: Unlocking Selling Pressure Not as Big as Expected, 23% Locked in Staking

MET launched on October 23, 2025, with 48% of tokens in circulation at issuance. Tokens reserved by the team and Meteora unlock monthly, continuing for 72 months, ending in late 2031. Currently, the monthly unlock increases the circulating supply by 1.31%.

However, tracking the flow of unlocked tokens reveals that the tokens unlocked from Meteora's reserves have not been sold in the past year; of the tokens unlocked by the team, about 64% have been sold or transferred. The actual monthly selling pressure is around $900,000. Many view oversupply and unlocking as risks, but in reality, they are not as significant as imagined.

The team has also conducted self-buybacks, spending $13.7 million to repurchase 3.56% of the total supply. MET has long lacked stable use cases, and in July 2026, the team introduced staking rewards: stakers can earn up to 10% of DLMM protocol fees, with an additional referral program distributing extra earnings. The originally planned end date of October 21 has been extended, and the results have been very positive.

Currently, approximately 128 million MET are staked, accounting for about 23% of the circulating supply. This number continues to grow, becoming an effective supply absorber. Stakers currently estimate an APR of about 15%, and during the recent frenzy of Solana meme stock trading pairs, returns once exceeded 100%.

The team emphasized in Discord that the low proportion of income allocated to token holders is intentional. This way, the operational costs of the protocol can be fully covered by protocol income, without needing to sell tokens to sustain expenses. This prudence also allows the project to remain profitable, accumulating a treasury valued at $32 million by the end of Q1 2026, primarily in SOL and USDC. There are also hints in Discord that the treasury's value continues to grow. This money can be used for growth plans or decided by the team for further buybacks.

Valuation Controversy: Revenue Like Raydium, Multiples Like Pump

Looking only at the past 30 days of revenue, MET seems cheap. It generates more revenue than protocols like LIT and RAY, yet its valuation is only a fraction of theirs.

However, the valuation multiples tell a more complex story. Based on FDV and market cap/revenue multiples, MET is closer to PUMP, while PUMP is also deeply discounted relative to its peers. Ninety percent of Meteora's revenue comes from memecoin trading, making its valuation close to PUMP reasonable. The sustainability of memecoin trading volume and how quickly trading volume can shift from one protocol to another will long suppress the multiples in this space.

Raydium derives only 36% of its revenue from memecoins, which is why the market is willing to assign it a higher multiple. However, looking deeper, 30% to 50% of Raydium's recent tokenized stock trading volume is actually driven by meme stock trading pairs. The author believes that Meteora has 60% to 70% of its trading volume not from memecoins most weeks, which should justify a multiple closer to Raydium's.

Just this point alone is not enough for MET to directly achieve Raydium's multiples, especially since memecoins still contribute 90% of its revenue. However, the author also disagrees with the market currently pushing MET so close to PUMP. Meteora benefits from all successful tokens on Solana, regardless of whether they started from Pumpfun, Stonk, or elsewhere. It has established a real advantage in liquidity and execution for surviving tokens, with lower reliance on the most speculative phases of memecoins.

The comparison with PUMP is equally complex. Pump has a full stack and is expanding beyond memecoins by integrating Hyperliquid perpetual contracts and collector-supported collectible card products. PUMP itself should command a higher multiple, closer to Raydium, which may raise the valuation floor for the entire memecoin infrastructure sector.

Meteora's bullish logic still depends on the overall growth of Solana memecoin trading volume and its ability to capture a larger share. Catalysts are emerging.

DLMM Pro: A Bullish Option Betting on New Launch Pads

During Token 2049, Meteora launched DLMM Pro, integrating the functionalities of DLMM, DAMM v2, and DBC into a single AMM. Tokens can now complete joint curve issuance, graduation, and continuous market-making within the same pool, reducing liquidity fragmentation during the maturation process. The team can also better control liquidity distribution, issuance conditions, and time-decaying fees, with lower startup costs making experiments cheaper.

Meteora also launched DBC 0.2.2, supporting Token-2022 transfer fees for base tokens and quote tokens. This gives builders more room to explore price discovery for low liquidity stocks, custom fee structures, and new graduation rules for stock-like assets.

BubbleStocks is an early example. Its model channels trading fees into selected stock-USDC liquidity pool positions, using speculative attention to build liquidity for the underlying tokenized stocks. If successful, DBC can help Meteora convert short-lived meme activities into more durable liquidity covering a broader range of tokenized assets, also allowing for more diverse revenue sources.

These upgrades may allow Meteora to move upstream in the value chain. It is no longer just competing for trading volume after the token's success, but can attract more projects from the issuance stage and retain activity during the maturation process. This will enhance its ability to compete with Pump and Raydium through its own infrastructure's launchpad. While Pump's distribution and trader community remain significant advantages, DLMM Pro may offer something different for competing launchpads.

Hooked has already demonstrated this model. It combines Meteora's joint curve with Solana's transfer hooks to create tokens with custom rules, such as wallet holding limits, trading venue restrictions, and conditions for holders to sell. These mechanisms come from Hooked's token design, not DLMM Pro, but they indicate that developers can create different products around Meteora's liquidity infrastructure. The initial hype around Hooked has cooled, and more experiments and token issuances are expected to occur on Meteora.

Meteora has already benefited from several launchpads integrating it, the latest being Star.fun, although activity has only seen a slight increase since March. Previously, when activities like Believe, Moonshot, and Bags surged, Meteora's trading volume also skyrocketed. The author views this as a call option: if new launchpads like Hooked produce blockbuster tokens, it could catalyze the next wave of speculative activity, with Meteora as a graduating DEX reaping excess returns.

Risks: Cycles, Raydium's Counterattack, and Pump App's Distribution Threats

The main risk is the cyclicality of memecoin trading volume, which is Meteora's largest source of income. Looking at monthly memecoin trading volumes since March 2025, activity ebbs and flows with market sentiment, and recently, launchpads on Robinhood have also been competing with Solana for activity and capital. Betting on Meteora means not only betting on the continued strength of memecoin trading volume but also that most activity occurs on Solana.

The author believes the bear market bottom has passed, and the new market is still in its early stages, with memecoin activity likely to see more frequent peaks. Robinhood will siphon off some volume, but Solana has been, and will continue to be, the dominant chain for such activities. Meteora will benefit regardless of which launchpad wins on Solana, as the most active tokens will ultimately leave a significant portion of trading volume on Meteora.

The second risk is Raydium increasing competition for more memecoin trading volume. Currently, tokens graduating from Raydium LaunchLab enter CPMM pools, earning a fixed fee; Meteora's dynamic fees allow LPs to earn several times more per transaction. Raydium's CLMM pools already offer volatility fees. If it graduates launchpad tokens into CLMM pools, introduces LP incentives, or redesigns fees, it could significantly improve LP returns and narrow Meteora's advantage for LPs.

Theoretically easy, but practically difficult. Each change will affect different stakeholders in Raydium, including token holders, as currently 16% of fees are used for RAY buybacks and the treasury. The author thus views this as a low-probability, long-term risk.

The final risk is Pump App becoming the preferred distribution channel for Solana users. The team seems to be heading in that direction: integrating Hyperliquid perpetual contracts through builder codes and recently launching a card product supported by Collector Crypt. Pump App has recently captured nearly 50% of Fomo Solana's trading volume. This poses a threat to Meteora, as over 90% of trading volume on Pump App flows through PumpSwap, allowing Pump to internalize more revenue.

It is still too early to determine the outcome of consumer distribution, but investors should closely monitor these metrics, as they will affect the share of memecoin trading volume that Meteora can capture.

Conclusion: The Market Underestimates Meteora's Role as a Liquidity Base

Meteora does not rely on PvP trading volume from large launchpads like Pump and Stonk, but it has already captured a significant portion of the trading volume from these mature meme launchpads. It has established itself as the best execution DEX for these tokens and has become the best place for LPs to provide liquidity for them.

The author believes the market has overlooked one point: Meteora's execution advantage has allowed it to capture a large amount of memecoin routing volume from Jupiter and Fomo on Solana, which can be considered the two most important consumer distribution gateways of this cycle. Meteora accounts for 30% of Fomo Solana's memecoin trading volume, and at a valuation of $370 million, it is a liquid alternative bet on Fomo's growth. With DLMM Pro set to launch soon, this presents an interesting call option that will incentivize new experiments and launchpads to issue tokens on Meteora. Hooked has already provided early signs. If blockbusters emerge from these launchpads, both Meteora's trading volume and valuation will see significant upward movement.

With 90% of its revenue coming from memecoins, the market has thus assigned it a valuation close to Pump's. Whether this is fair or if it should be closer to its peers for the reasons mentioned earlier is debatable. However, it is undeniable that Meteora has established itself as the liquidity layer beneath Solana's memecoin economy. Memecoins are indeed a cyclical track, but since a new bull market may just be beginning, the long tail is more worthy of investor attention and is most likely to provide the best upside.