Solana is moving closer to hosting issuer-connected U.S. equities through regulated, onchain trading infrastructure. This week, Formation Securities, part of @formation_so, notified the SEC that it plans to run a tokenized securities venue on Solana under the September 2026 Innovation Exemption, with trading expected in early 2027. --- ➤ What is Formation Securities? Formation Securities is part of Formation, the company created by the merger of Orca and Loopscale. It is developing a regulated venue for tokenized U.S. equities on Solana, powered by Orca's AMM technology. Led by president @cpmontagano, who joined Orca as general counsel in 2022 after years of capital markets work for public companies, the venue initially plans to support: - @exodus ($EXOD) - @FWDind ($FWDI) - @galaxyhq ($GLXY) Investors are intended to trade these shares 24/7 while retaining voting and dividend rights, with atomic onchain settlement. --- ➤ The infrastructure stack Formation brings together specialized providers across the securities lifecycle: - Issuers: Exodus, Forward Industries and Galaxy Digital. - Tokenization: @SuperstateInc and @Securitize. - Trading: @orca_so provides AMM technology for permissioned liquidity pools. - Custody: @Anchorage, @BitGo and @FireblocksHQ. - Distribution: @AlpacaHQ, @jtx_trade, @CoinList, @solflare and @multisig. - Compliance and security: @trmlabs, @0xPredicate, @Solidus_Labs and @sec3dev. Orca's technology has processed $550B+ in trading volume since 2021, with 11 independent audits across four firms and formal verification by @Certora. --- ➤ How a tokenized stock trade works An eligible investor purchasing $EXOD with $USDC moves through six stages: Underlying shares → Tokenization → Investor verification → Permissioned AMM → Atomic settlement → Digital wallet. Three mechanisms underpin this process: - Permissioned AMM: Only eligible, verified investors can access securities liquidity pools. - Atomic settlement: EXOD and USDC transfer together in one indivisible transaction. - Transfer agent: Maintains the official shareholder register, connecting tokenized shares with intended voting and dividend rights. The critical requirement is keeping onchain ownership connected to legal shareholder records. --- ➤ Issuer consent changes the business model Formation's issuer-consent model distinguishes it from products that simply track stock prices. - Synthetic exposure does not automatically confer shareholder rights. - Issuer-connected tokenization aims to link shares with ownership records and investor rights. For public companies, Formation highlights three potential benefits: - 24/7 trading. - Atomic settlement. - Real-time visibility into trading activity. The initial participation of Exodus, Forward Industries and Galaxy Digital gives the venue its starting issuer base. --- Tokenizing equities is only the first step. Building compliant secondary markets is the harder structural challenge. Formation is bringing issuer participation, AMM liquidity and securities infrastructure into a public blockchain environment. The real test is whether issuer participation can translate into deep liquidity, reliable price discovery and functioning secondary markets.