Formation notifies SEC to operate first tokenized securities venue on Solana

Formation Securities announced today that it has notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of its intention to operate a tokenized securities venue on Solana Solana (SOL).

The firm plans to operate under the SEC's innovation exemption that allows the conditional secondary trading of eligible tokenized stocks through permissioned automated market maker liquidity pools on qualified venues.

Formation wrote in a statement that trading is targeted to start in early 2027, with tokenized shares of Exodus Movement Exodus Movement, Inc. (EXOD), Forward Industries Forward Industries, Inc. (FWDI), and Galaxy Digital Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY) set to roll out at launch. 

The tokenized shares will be offered to verified investors through Superstate, Securities, Formation Securities' own platform, other distribution channels such as Alpaca, and custodians including Anchorage and BitGo Bank.

Formation stated that it chose Solana for its reliability, speed, low cost, and its support of more than $5 billion in tokenized real-world assets. Its tokenized shares will provide the same voting and dividend rights as other shareholders. Meanwhile, the investors will be able to trade the shares around-the-clock against stablecoins and other eligible assets, settled atomically onchain.

The announcement from Formation came after OKXICE, the joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange, announced that they would list and trade tokenized shares under the SEC's innovation exemption. While the venue is not live, a total of 67 firms have objected to the tokenization of their shares for trading on the platform.

Amid the growing number of objections that OKXICE is facing, Formation said it plans to work together with issuers on tokenized shares.

"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. "Formation Securities is designed to give issuers and investors a new, transparent market, with trading beyond traditional market hours and faster onchain settlement, while preserving the key rights shareholders enjoy in the traditional financial space."

Formation was established last month as a result of the merger between Solana-based decentralized exchange Orca and Loopscale to focus on tokenization and onchain finance. It said in a press release that it is already working with Figure, Shinhan Asset Management, Superstate, R3, and Securitize.