Formation Securities announced in New York on November 9 that it has notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of plans to operate a tokenized-stock trading venue on Solana, with trading expected to begin in early 2027. The venue is not live, and the notification is not SEC approval or registration of Formation’s planned operation.
The company’s release says tokenized shares of Exodus Movement, Forward Industries and Galaxy Digital, with the respective symbols EXOD, FWDI and GLXY, are anticipated at launch. Superstate and Securitize are expected to make tokenized shares available. These are launch plans, not confirmation that any of the stocks can already be traded on Formation.
Formation intends to use licensed Orca technology for permissioned automated market maker liquidity pools, rather than a conventional order book of standing buy and sell orders. In that model, investors trade against pools of assets using software that determines prices. The company’s notice warns that pool prices may differ from the underlying shares’ prices, particularly when liquidity is low or traditional U.S. stock markets are closed.
“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 settlement onchain, while preserving the key rights shareholders enjoy in the traditional financial space.”
The planned venue would let verified participants hold tokenized shares in wallets they or their custodians control, rather than giving Formation custody of assets or private keys. Trades are intended to settle atomically on Solana: both sides’ assets transfer in the same blockchain transaction, or the asset transfers do not occur. Network fees may still be incurred on a failed transaction. Faster settlement does not remove wallet, software, liquidity or counterparty risks.
Trading is planned around the clock, but not without interruptions. Formation’s public notice says it would stop trading for applicable halts or suspensions in the underlying stock and when required by volume limits. Identity, sanctions and wallet checks would apply, and a wallet must receive venue approval as well as any required tokenizer approval. A public blockchain does not mean anyone can trade these shares without permission.
The regulatory distinction is important. Formation says neither it nor the venue is registered with the SEC in any capacity for the activities performed under the tokenized-securities-venue exemption, and the SEC has not passed on the merits or accuracy of its disclosures. The SEC’s September 17 conditional exemption provides a framework for qualifying venues, not an individual endorsement of Formation. Its notice also says the venue would not be subject to Regulation NMS or the same fair-access requirements as registered exchanges and certain alternative trading systems.
Eligible tokenized stocks must preserve the rights of equivalent traditional shares, including voting and dividends. Formation says it would review backing, corporate-action and rights arrangements before admission, and stop making a token available if equivalent rights no longer apply. The release says issuers’ transfer agents would continue to maintain the official shareholder record. Those protections depend on the tokenization and intermediary arrangements working as described.
Expected access channels named in the release include Alpaca, Passage by CoinList, Anchorage Digital Bank, BitGo Bank & Trust, Fireblocks, Jito’s JTX, Solflare and Squads, alongside Formation’s own platform. Predicate, Sec3, Solidus Labs and TRM Labs are named as planned service providers. These expected integrations should not be read as live distribution or a guarantee that every planned channel will be available in every jurisdiction.
For issuers and investors, the proposal tests another way to trade stock with longer hours and blockchain settlement while keeping shareholder rights. The open questions include the exact opening date, final trading pairs, fee schedule, available liquidity and whether each planned integration and eligibility condition will be ready. Formation says contract addresses and paired assets will be identified before production trading. No trading volume, price reaction or realized investor benefit has been established by Monday’s announcement.
JBizNews Desk | New York
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