Key Takeaways
- Formation Securities plans to launch a tokenized securities venue on Solana in early 2027, offering 24/7 trading and onchain settlement for verified investors.
- Galaxy Digital, Exodus, and Forward Industries are among the anticipated initial offerings, with Superstate and Securitize providing tokenization services and Orca supplying trading technology.
- Formation’s issuer-focused approach contrasts with growing resistance to OKXICE’s rival platform, which has faced objections from 67 companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla.
Formation Securities has notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of plans to launch a tokenized securities venue on the Solana blockchain in early 2027, joining a growing number of firms seeking to bring traditional stock trading onto blockchain networks.
The company announced Monday that its planned platform will allow verified investors to trade tokenized shares around the clock using stablecoins and other eligible assets, while retaining the voting, dividend, and other shareholder rights associated with conventional equities.
Formation expects to initially support shares of Exodus Movement (NYSE: EXOD), Forward Industries (NASDAQ: FWDI), and Galaxy Digital (NASDAQ: GLXY)—all crypto-native firms. Tokenization providers Superstate and Securitize are expected to supply securities for the venue, which will use trading technology licensed from Solana-based decentralized exchange Orca.
The platform intends to operate under the SEC’s Innovation Exemption, introduced in September, which permits qualifying venues to facilitate secondary trading of tokenized securities through permissioned automated market maker liquidity pools, subject to regulatory conditions.
Unlike conventional stock exchanges, where trading and settlement are handled through established financial intermediaries, Formation’s system will record transactions directly on Solana. Investors will hold tokenized securities in digital wallets, with transactions designed to settle immediately and simultaneously onchain.
Formation said its approach will preserve companies’ relationships with shareholders, while transfer agents continue maintaining official ownership records.
“Tokenized stocks will succeed only if public companies see the value in them, and we intend to build this market together with issuers,” said Formation Securities President Christopher Montagano, in a statement.
The company also outlined an extensive distribution network, including Alpaca, Passage by CoinList, Anchorage Digital, BitGo, Fireblocks, Solflare, Squads, and Jito’s JTX trading interface. Participation will be restricted to verified investors.
Formation said it selected Solana for its transaction speeds, low fees, and existing tokenization infrastructure. The company noted that the blockchain already supports more than $5 billion in tokenized real-world assets.
Pushback to Tokenized Stock Platforms
The announcement comes amid a broader push to modernize securities markets through blockchain technology, although corporate resistance has emerged as a significant challenge for some competing platforms.
As Bitcoin.com News recently reported, 67 companies have objected to plans by OKXICE, a joint venture between cryptocurrency exchange OKX and New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), to offer tokenized versions of U.S. stocks.
The latest objectors include Meta, Palantir, S&P Global, KLA, and Super Micro Computer, joining earlier holdouts such as Apple, Boeing, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, and JPMorgan Chase. The objections have left OKXICE with predominantly cryptocurrency-linked companies among its original targets that have not opted out.
OKXICE plans to operate under the same SEC exemption, using permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX’s X Layer blockchain. However, its strategy of targeting a broad selection of major American stocks has encountered substantial resistance from issuers.
Formation’s emphasis on collaborating directly with public companies offers a different approach to expanding tokenized equity trading, although its planned launch remains subject to applicable regulatory requirements.
Other major financial institutions are also advancing tokenization initiatives. Nasdaq has announced plans for a tokenized securities venue in 2027 through its partnership with Kraken parent Payward, while Morgan Stanley recently disclosed its participation in the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s new tokenization service for traditional financial assets.
Formation’s proposed venue builds on Project Open, an initiative submitted to the SEC in April 2025 by a coalition including Orca, Superstate, and the Solana Policy Institute.
With its anticipated early 2027 debut, Formation is seeking to establish Solana as a trading network for regulated U.S. securities as competition intensifies over the next generation of stock market infrastructure.
