Formation Securities seeks SEC approval to trade tokenized stocks on Solana

U.S. stock markets still close at 4 p.m. ET and stay shut on weekends. Formation Securities wants to change that, and it’s turning to the Solana blockchain to do it.

On Monday, the New York–based firm said it has notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it plans to run what it calls the first tokenized securities venue on Solana. 

A tokenized stock is a share of a company issued as a digital token on a blockchain. Solana is a high-speed blockchain built for fast, low-cost transactions. Formation expects trading to begin in early 2027.

The plan relies on the SEC’s Innovation Exemption, released in September 2026. 

Under the exemption, a tokenized share must give holders what a regular share does, such as votes and dividends. Trading has to run through permissioned automated liquidity pools on venues that qualify.

Related: Samsung Wallet users can now send USDC on Solana

Galaxy, Exodus and Forward lined up first

Formation says it expects to list tokenized shares of three companies at launch:

• Exodus Movement (NYSE: EXOD)
• Forward Industries (NASDAQ: FWDI)
• Galaxy Digital (NASDAQ: GLXY)

Superstate and Securitize, two firms that turn traditional securities into blockchain tokens, are expected to supply the shares.

“Tokenized stocks will succeed only if public companies see the value in them,” said Christopher Montagano, president of Formation Securities. He said the company plans to build the market alongside issuers.

Buyers would keep the tokens in crypto wallets and could swap them for stablecoins, digital tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar. 

Payment and delivery would happen at the same moment onchain, which Formation argues cuts the risk of a failed trade.

Companies keep their direct relationship with shareholders, according to the release. 

Their transfer agent, the firm that keeps a company’s official record of who owns its shares, keeps that record, and every trade shows up in real time on Solana’s public ledger.

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Solana’s head start in tokenized assets

Formation says it picked Solana for its speed, low costs and track record with tokenized assets. 

Citing data from RWA.xyz, it says the network holds more than $5 billion in tokenized real-world assets. 

The company also says Solana’s token tools let issuers control which wallets can hold or transfer a security.

The venue runs on trading technology licensed from Orca, a Solana-based trading platform. 

It builds on Project Open, a proposal that Orca, Superstate and the Solana Policy Institute submitted to the SEC’s Crypto Task Force in April 2025.

“This is the moment we’ve been building toward since we started Superstate,” said Robert Leshner, Superstate’s co-founder and CEO.

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo said venues like Formation “should be able to focus on execution and liquidity.” 

He said each of Securitize’s tokens is backed by a real share held by its broker-dealer.

Access won’t be open to everyone at first. Only verified investors can trade, through Formation’s own platform and partners including Alpaca, Anchorage Digital, BitGo, Fireblocks and Jito’s JTX interface.

The venue will also face the exemption’s limits on which securities it lists and how much volume it can handle.

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