Formation Securities has notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that it intends to operate a tokenized securities venue on Solana under the agency's "Innovation Exemption," with trading expected to begin in early 2027.
The exemption, issued by the SEC in September, provides conditional relief allowing eligible tokenized stocks to trade through permissioned automated market maker pools on qualifying venues. Formation said Monday it had filed the notice to operate under that framework.
Tokenized shares of Exodus Movement, Forward Industries and Galaxy Digital are anticipated at launch, according to the firm.
The venue promises 24/7 trading and near-instant atomic settlement while preserving shareholders' voting and dividend rights. Under the exemption, eligible tokens must carry the same voting and dividend rights as traditional shares, and each trade settles atomically onchain, a feature meant to cut settlement risk. A company's transfer agent still keeps the official shareholder record, while every trade posts to the public ledger in real time.
"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, which licenses its trading technology from Solana-based exchange Orca.
Tokenization firms Securitize and Superstate are expected to supply tokenized shares. Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo noted that its tokens are each backed by a real share held by its broker-dealer.
Access will be limited to verified investors, who can reach the venue through Formation's platform and distributors including Alpaca, CoinList's Passage, custodians Anchorage, BitGo and Fireblocks, and wallet providers Solflare and Squads.
The move adds another entrant to a crowded race to put stocks onchain. The NYSE recently tapped Solana rival Avalanche to settle its own planned tokenized securities platform, Securitize launched tokenized stocks on Solana, and an OKX-ICE venue is also in the works, though every Magnificent Seven stock opted out of that one.
The effort builds on Project Open, a proposal a coalition including Orca, Superstate and the Solana Policy Institute submitted to the SEC in 2025. Formation said it chose Solana for its speed, low costs and track record with tokenized assets, noting the network hosts more than $5 billion in tokenized real-world assets.
