Formation Tells SEC It Plans First Tokenized Securities Venue on Solana

Formation Securities has told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission it wants to operate a tokenized securities venue on Solana. The firm plans to lean on the SEC's innovation exemption, which permits conditional secondary trading of eligible tokenized stocks through permissioned automated market maker liquidity pools on qualified venues. Trading is targeted to begin in early 2027.

The first tokenized shares out of the gate will be Exodus Movement (EXOD), Forward Industries (FWDI) and Galaxy Digital (GLXY). Verified investors will get them through Superstate, Formation's own platform, distribution channels such as Alpaca and custodians including Anchorage and BitGo Bank. Formation says the tokens carry the same voting and dividend rights as regular shares, and holders can trade them around the clock against stablecoins and other eligible assets, settled atomically onchain.

Solana won the job for its reliability, speed and low cost, plus its support for more than $5 billion in tokenized real-world assets, according to Formation. The company says it will work with issuers rather than around them. 'Tokenized stocks will succeed only if public companies see the value in them, and we intend to build this market together with issuers,' said Christopher Montagano, president of Formation Securities. He said the venue is built to give issuers and investors a transparent market with trading beyond traditional hours and faster onchain settlement while preserving core shareholder rights.

Formation's filing lands right after OKXICE, the joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange, said it would list and trade tokenized shares under the same SEC exemption. That venue isn't live yet, and 67 firms have objected to their shares being tokenized for trading on it.

Formation itself is only weeks old. It was established last month when Solana-based decentralized exchange Orca merged with Loopscale to focus on tokenization and onchain finance. The company says it is already working with Figure, Shinhan Asset Management, Superstate, R3 and Securitize.