Rome is a city with layers. Literally. Stretching back thousands of years, the ancient Italian capital has been built and rebuilt, sieged and sacked, and rebuilt some more. Its history is linked to countless world-changing events over the past 2,500 years, intricately connecting it to the entirety of Western civilization. (They don’t call it the Eternal City for nothing.)
Wandering through Rome and you little stumbled upon everywhere you go as there’s some ancient column or area that built around. In fact, it takes so long to build anything in the city because every time they try to build a subway, building, or change something, they stumble across new ruins and have to send in the archeologists to investigate.
Raydium is releasing LaunchLab, a new token launchpad to compete with Pump.fun. The exchange announced this platform last month, and its full release has sparked community enthusiasm.
Pump.fun and Raydium have been locked in an intense competition in the Solana ecosystem. Last month, Pump.fun launched its own decentralized exchange, and now Raydium has introduced its own launchpad.
Raydium Increases Solana Dominance with new Launchpad
Raydium, Solana’s largest decentralized exchange, has the opportunity to make some serious gains in the near future. Solana meme coins are eyeing a comeback with heightened trade volumes and rising token prices, and the firm is releasing a long-awaited project.
Although it will compete with Pump.fun, Raydium’s launchpad services look more extensive. They will allow all kinds of tokens to be launched, not just meme coins, and these tokens can be directly traded on the exchange.
“Introducing LaunchLab, Raydium’s all-in-one token launchpad. Built for creators, developers, and the community. Get started with JustSendIt mode: launch a token, hit 85 SOL, [and] liquidity migrates to Raydium’s AMM INSTANTLY. Seamless, on-chain token creation. No migration fee. No gatekeepers,” the firm claimed in its launch announcement.
Last month, however, this same asset soared when Raydium first announced Launchpad. Pump.fun entered the DEX sector, and Raydium is enabling users to launch their own meme coins.
Since this launch announcement took place, RAY spiked around 10%, signifying the community’s enthusiasm.
There may be another explanation for this token rally in addition to community hype. Raydium also mentioned that all of Launchpad’s trading fees will go towards ecosystem development.
More specifically, 25% of these fees will directly fund buybacks of RAY tokens, while the other 75% go towards a Community Pool and Program fee.
These other funds can enable a few generous user incentives. Raydium claimed that Launchpad token creators can earn up to 10% of trading fees from the AMM pool post-graduation, and users can also receive SOL tokens from referring new clients. Token creators will also enjoy several other quality-of-life features.
The crypto market and broader economy are moving fast as global liquidity reached an all-time high in April 2025. Gold has already broken past $3,200, setting a new record. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is still 30% below its previous peak.
Amid this backdrop, analysts are taking a closer look at the link between Bitcoin and gold. Fresh data also shows strong corporate demand for Bitcoin, with record levels of buying in Q1 2025.
What Bitcoin’s Ties to Gold and Liquidity Signal for Its Price
According to Joe Consorti, Head of Growth at Theya, Bitcoin tends to follow gold’s lead with a lag of about 100 to 150 days. A chart shared by Consorti on X, based on Bloomberg data, illustrates this trend from 2019 to April 14, 2025.
The chart shows gold (XAU/USD) in white and Bitcoin (XBT/USD) in orange. The data reveals that gold usually moves first during upswings, but Bitcoin often rallies harder afterward—especially when global liquidity is rising.
“When the printer roars to life, gold sniffs it out first, then Bitcoin follows harder,” Consorti said.
That 100-to-150-day lag is notable. It suggests Bitcoin could be set for a sharp move higher within the next 3 to 4 months. The recent surge in global liquidity also supports this view.
According to analyst Root, M2 money supply from major central banks—including the US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank (ECB), People’s Bank of China (PBoC), Bank of Japan (BoJ), Bank of England (BoE), Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Bank of Canada (BoC), and others—has hit a record high as of April 2025.
The sharp rise points to more cash flowing through the global economy.
Historically, Bitcoin bull markets have often lined up with major increases in global liquidity, as more money in the system tends to push investors toward riskier assets like Bitcoin.
Why Bitcoin Might Outperform Gold and Stocks
Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise Invest, states that Bitcoin is not just outperforming gold but is also surpassing the S&P 500 in the long run. This indicates that Bitcoin is becoming a stronger investment option despite its price volatility.
Data also supports this. A recent Bitwise report shows corporations bought over 95,400 BTC in Q1—about 0.5% of all Bitcoin in circulation. That makes it the largest quarter for corporate accumulation on record.
“People want to own Bitcoin. Corporations do too. 95,000 BTC purchased in Q1,” Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said.
With rising corporate demand and Bitcoin’s strong performance against traditional assets, the stage may be set for a major rally in summer 2025—driven by peak global liquidity and Bitcoin’s historic tendency to follow gold’s lead.
Sygnum’s off-exchange custody platform allows traders to mirror assets held in Sygnum’s custody while trading on an exchange like Deribit.
Cryptocurrency banking firm Sygnum is partnering with crypto derivatives exchange Deribit, providing its off-exchange custody platform, Sygnum Protect.
On March 5, Sygnum announced the expansion of Sygnum Protect, its off-exchange custody platform, to include Deribit, one of the world’s largest derivatives exchanges in crypto.
This integration enables institutional Deribit traders to hold their assets in Sygnum’s institutional-grade custody while accessing Deribit’s broad trading offering and liquidity.
