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Formation Securities told the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday that it intends to run a tokenized securities venue on Solana, operating under the agency’s Innovation Exemption, according to Decrypt. The New York-based firm expects trading to start in early 2027, with tokenized shares of Exodus Movement, Forward Industries and Galaxy Digital anticipated at launch.
The venue would combine round-the-clock markets and near-instant atomic settlement with the voting and dividend rights attached to ordinary shares. Formation Securities President Christopher Montagano framed issuer buy-in as the deciding factor, saying tokenized stocks will succeed only if public companies see the value in them and that the firm intends to build the market with issuers.
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Key facts
- Formation filed its notice on November 9, 2026, seeking to operate under the SEC’s Innovation Exemption issued September 17, 2026.
- Galaxy Digital, Exodus Movement and Forward Industries tokens are the three intended launch securities, with trading expected in early 2027.
- Tokenization providers Securitize and Superstate are expected to supply the tokenized shares; Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo said each of its tokens is backed by a real share held by its broker-dealer.
- Crypto Briefing reported that Formation is the entity formed by the merger of Solana DeFi protocols Orca and Loopscale, led by CEO Luke Truitt.
- Formation licenses trading technology from Orca, which crypto.news reported has processed more than $550 billion in digital asset trades through October 31.
What the exemption permits
Under the framework, eligible stocks trade through permissioned automated market maker pools rather than order books, and only verified investors can participate. A transfer agent keeps the official shareholder record while each trade posts to the public ledger. crypto.news reported that the exemption imposes volume and listing limits, requires venues to publish proposed arrangements at least 30 days before opening, and gives companies the chance to object before securities tokenized by an unaffiliated third party are admitted.
The reports differ on how far Formation has to go. Decrypt presents the notice chiefly as the arrival of another venue, while crypto.news is explicit that Formation has not started trading and that the launch remains subject to the exemption’s conditions. Crypto Briefing separately noted that Formation still plans to pursue the licenses such a venue requires.
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Distribution partners and Solana’s track record
Access is limited to verified investors, who can reach the venue through Formation’s platform and distributors including Alpaca, CoinList’s Passage, the custodians Anchorage, BitGo and Fireblocks, and the wallet providers Solflare and Squads. For compliance and transaction monitoring, Formation named Predicate, Sec3, Solidus Labs and TRM Labs, and said it will publish pool contract addresses, daily share volumes and pool balances.
Formation said it chose Solana for speed, low costs and its record with tokenized assets, noting the network hosts more than $5 billion in tokenized real-world assets. Crypto Briefing pointed to Forward Industries, which has traded on Orca since November 2025, and to the merged firm’s combination of trading rails and credit infrastructure.
Why it matters
The notice puts a New York-based firm on record telling the SEC that Solana is a credible host for tokenized National Market System stocks. It also adds a name to a contest that already includes the NYSE’s arrangement with Avalanche, Securitize’s launch of tokenized stocks on Solana, and a planned OKX-ICE venue that every Magnificent Seven company opted out of, according to Decrypt. Crypto Briefing reported that at least three entities had submitted notices by late October 2026, including TSV LLC on Canton Network and OKXICE on X Layer.
The effort builds on Project Open, a proposal submitted to the SEC’s Crypto Task Force in April 2025 by a coalition including Orca, Superstate and the Solana Policy Institute. A key constraint is time: Crypto Briefing reported the exemption runs until September 17, 2031, meaning venues built on it operate on a clock unless the SEC extends or formalizes the rules.
What to watch
The 30-day publication window before opening, and whether Formation clears the licensing hurdles Crypto Briefing identified, are the near-term checkpoints. Beyond that, the SEC’s treatment of the exemption as its 2031 expiry approaches will shape whether venues like this outlast the relief itself.
Sources: Decrypt, Crypto Briefing, crypto.news
