Solana recorded its strongest day ever for token launches, with 263,000 new assets minted in a single day, as renewed competition with Robinhood Chain drives interest in new types of on-chain assets.

The record challenges the recent narrative of token-launch fatigue. After months of stagnant meme-token trading, concerns had grown that traders were withdrawing from the market. However, the latest result was an outlier that exceeded even the busiest days of previous peak meme-token seasons. Data from Solscan showed the surge occurring only days after the emergence of the StonkFun platform.

Reflection tokens have been one of the trends behind the new wave of launches. Alongside Robinhood Chain, Solana has become a major venue for memes that reflect other assets. The increase in launches has also supported activity and revenue for the Raydium decentralized exchange (DEX) and the emerging StonkFun launchpad.

Unlike conventional meme tokens, reflection tokens are designed around multiple types of pairings. These can include tokenized stocks, real-world asset (RWA) perpetual futures, other tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and blue-chip crypto assets. The model was adopted quickly and is moving into a more active phase involving user FOMO, automation, and competition.

Launchpad platforms also include revenue-sharing mechanisms. On-chain estimates indicate that StonkFun distributes $10,000 for every $1 million in trading volume through token burns, according to data referenced by DefiLlama. Robinhood’s Pons also charges a tax and shares the resulting revenue with token creators.

The new Solana token boom indicates that some new traders are being attracted by the promise of underlying value, potentially avoiding the severe rug pulls and losses associated with traditional meme tokens. However, the launchpads remain unregulated, and the relationship between a token and stock or asset ownership can vary from one project to another — a pairing with a stock ticker does not automatically translate into a claim on the underlying shares.

Solana launchpads move ahead of Robinhood

Competition among new launchpads intensified over the past week. Most of the platforms are focused on reflection meme tokens and different ways to pair assets. The market is changing rapidly, with many new launches linked to high-profile equities and their on-chain representations.

StonkFun, which is built on Solana, surpassed Pons, Robinhood’s native launchpad, during the previous two days. It pairs memes with prominent crypto assets such as ZEC and with stocks associated with highly popular artificial-intelligence narratives. Competition could increase further after PumpFun — which rose to prominence during Solana’s earlier peak meme-token seasons — launched its own version of reflection tokens with a “custom pairs” option, as announced on X. How launch share shifts among StonkFun, Pons, and PumpFun in the days ahead will offer a measure of whether the record-setting pace can be sustained.

Although the data is subject to delays, the recent gains may be connected to the increased number of new launches. StonkFun also hosts prominent memes including STONK, which reflects SPCX, and ZCAT, which reflects ZEC. Those tokens have been among the platform’s most liquid assets and the day’s top gainers.

STONK rose to $0.22 as StonkFun’s broader performance followed the general trend in reflection tokens. The token also gained after StonkFun announced that it would distribute dividends to token holders within its ecosystem.

The expansion of token launches coincides with the growing representation of RWAs on Solana. Sunrise recently added more than 20 tokenized stocks. The rush to build launchpads and issue tokens is being viewed as a possible indication of an RWA supercycle.

Until recently, RWAs were largely experimental and traded with limited liquidity. Bringing stocks into decentralized finance, combining them with active trading, and using automated token trading could increase liquidity and create additional use cases. For now, much of the growth is based on a combination of FOMO, demand for passive income, and exposure to existing on-chain RWAs.

Meteora adds liquidity options

Some of the new Solana launches may be linked to Meteora. The platform enables pairs to be created between any two Solana assets, allowing tokens to trade against a broader range of assets rather than relying only on USDC and other stablecoins.

Meteora’s approach has attracted Perpspad, which is creating new trading pairs in which tokens reflect RWA perpetual-futures positions, according to PerpsPad. Meteora is also one of the largest liquidity venues on Solana and could be used for a future wave of RWA-backed meme-token launches.