Impermanent loss on Solana obeys the same math as anywhere else — it depends only on how far your two tokens' price ratio moves. What changes is the venue. Solana's three major AMMs build liquidity in three different ways: Raydium (full-curve and concentrated), Orca Whirlpools (concentrated), and Meteora DLMM (discrete bins). The same price move can cost you very different amounts depending on which pool you joined. This is the venue-by-venue guide.
Impermanent loss is the gap between the value of a liquidity position and simply holding the two deposited tokens, after their price ratio changes. For a 50/50 constant-product pool it has a closed form:
IL = 2·√r / (1 + r) − 1
where r is the new price ratio divided by the ratio at deposit (derivation: Auditless, 2020; base AMM model: Uniswap V2 whitepaper, 2020). This is the baseline. Concentrated venues amplify it; the direction never depends on the chain.
| Price-ratio change | Baseline IL (full-range) |
|---|---|
| 1.25× | ~0.6% |
| 1.5× | ~2.0% |
| 2× | ~5.7% |
| 3× | ~13.4% |
| 5× | ~25.5% |
| Venue | Liquidity model | IL character | Fee mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raydium CPMM | Full-curve constant product (xy=k) | Classic, un-amplified; no range to manage | Flat LP fee |
| Raydium CLMM | Concentrated (Uniswap-v3-style ticks) | Amplified in range; one-sided out of range | Fee tiers |
| Orca Whirlpools | Concentrated (ticks, chosen range) | Amplified in range; one-sided out of range | Fee tiers |
| Meteora DLMM | Discrete price bins, one active bin | Amplified in range; one-sided out of range | Dynamic fee (rises with volatility) |
Raydium offers both a standard constant-product AMM (CPMM) with classic full-range IL, and a concentrated liquidity AMM (CLMM) "inspired by Uniswap v3." The choice between them is the biggest IL decision on Raydium — full detail in Raydium impermanent loss: CPMM vs CLMM.
Orca's Whirlpools are concentrated-liquidity pools where you pick a price range; Orca calls the effect divergence loss and documents worked examples (Orca docs). Narrower ranges earn more fees but amplify IL — see Orca impermanent loss in Whirlpools.
Meteora's DLMM concentrates liquidity into discrete price bins, with only one active bin earning fees at a time (Meteora docs). Because it is concentrated, IL is amplified within your bins — but Meteora adds a dynamic fee that rises with volatility, explicitly designed to help LPs capture more value when IL risk is highest. As Meteora's own docs note, "if the active price moves outside your selected range, that position stops earning trading fees until the price returns or you rebalance."
Pick the venue to match how much you'll manage the position. A full-range Raydium CPMM pool is set-and-forget with predictable IL. Concentrated venues (Raydium CLMM, Orca, Meteora) demand attention — you're choosing a range and betting price stays in it long enough for fees to beat the amplified IL. Meteora's dynamic fees tilt that bet slightly in the LP's favor during volatile periods, but the core trade-off is identical: more concentration, more fees, more IL. The single biggest IL lever sits above all of this — the pair you choose (see how to reduce impermanent loss).
The free TraderBear impermanent loss calculator is Solana-first: paste a Raydium or Orca pool address and current prices auto-fill, or enter any pair by hand. It computes IL, runs 5,000 Monte-Carlo price paths for the full distribution of outcomes, and reports LP-vs-HODL with Sharpe and net APR so fee income is weighed against IL. Client-side only — no wallet connect, no signup.
The math is identical — IL depends only on the price-ratio move. What differs is the venue: Raydium, Orca, and Meteora implement liquidity differently, so the same move yields different IL and fee offsets.
None removes it. Full-range Raydium CPMM has classic un-amplified IL; concentrated venues (CLMM, Whirlpools, DLMM) amplify it for more fees. The bigger lever is the pair, not the venue.
Bins are concentrated liquidity, so IL is amplified in-range and the position goes one-sided out of range. Meteora's dynamic fee rises with volatility to help offset that risk.
Paste the pool address into the free calculator to auto-fill prices, or enter them manually. It returns IL, a Monte-Carlo distribution, and net APR vs. holding.
Raydium, Orca, or any pair. Paste an address or enter prices; get IL, a 5,000-path Monte-Carlo distribution, and LP-vs-HODL net APR. Browser-only, no signup.
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