Solana set for its first tokenized stock venue under SEC framework, listing Galaxy

The Solana (SOL) network is getting its first tokenized stock trading venue under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) innovation exemption, with three publicly traded companies already lined up to participate.

Formation Securities told CoinDesk it notified the agency of plans to operate a tokenized securities venue (TSV), with trading expected to begin in early 2027.

The initial lineup for tokenized share trading includes Galaxy Digital GLXY$13.66·Market Closed, Exodus Movement (EXOD) and Forward Industries (FWDI), the company said.

Formation is the latest firm to announce plans for a tokenized stock venue under the SEC's innovation exemption, following OKXICE — the joint venture of NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange and crypto exchange OKX —, Canton-based TSV LLC and Perpetuals.com.

The five-year framework allows qualifying venues to experiment with trading tokenized U.S. stocks through automated market makers (AMMs), software that executes trades against pools of assets rather than using traditional order books. Participation is restricted to verified investors, with limits on trading volume and the number of securities offered.

Solana is already a major hub for tokenized stock trading. It ranks third behind Ethereum and BNB Chain in the value of stock tokens, with roughly $570 million of the $3.8 billion market, according to data from RWA.xyz. It was also the busiest blockchain for trading activity, with more than $7 billion in tokenized stocks changing hands over the past week.

Much of that activity, however, involves synthetic stock tokens, derivative products that offer exposure to share prices without the same ownership and shareholder rights as the underlying stocks.

Starting with willing issuers

Under the SEC's rules, companies have 30 days to block trading of their shares when tokenized by an unaffiliated third party.

OKXICE was first to test that rule over the past month, facing a wave of objections from the companies whose shares it sought to trade. Of the 62 companies OKXICE initially selected, about 90% had objected as of Friday, according to a CoinDesk tally, including Apple, Microsoft and Meta among those that rejected the plans.

Formation chose a different approach, securing support of its first three issuers before announcing the venue, Christopher Montagano, the firm's president, told CoinDesk in an interview.

The venue’s initial roster consists of companies already familiar with tokenization. Galaxy and Forward Industries tokenized shares are listed on Superstate’s Opening Bell platform, while Exodus was among the first companies to issues its shares in a tokenized form through Securitize.

“Onchain equities are still nascent, but the SEC’s innovation exemption provides a thoughtful and regulated pathway to explore what we expect to become a meaningful segment of U.S. capital markets,” Alex Thorn, Galaxy's head of firmwide research, said in a statement.

Investors would be able to hold the shares in their own digital wallets and trade them around the clock using stablecoins, with transactions settling instantly onchain. The tokens would carry the same shareholder rights as traditional stocks, including voting and dividends, according to the SEC’s requirements.

Formation plans to expand its roster through direct outreach to public companies over the next two months, Montagano told CoinDesk, pitching the venue as an additional distribution channel that could attract new investors beyond traditional stock exchanges.

An open marketplace

Formation also wants to bring competing tokenization providers onto the same trading platform, Montagano said.

Superstate and Securitize are both expected to make tokenized shares available on the venue, while custody providers Anchorage Digital, BitGo and Fireblocks will help investors access the market, according to the press release. Other distribution partners include Alpaca, CoinList, Solflare, Squads and Jito's JTX trading interface.

Formation plans to license trading technology from Orca, a Solana-based decentralized exchange protocol. Montagano previously served as chief legal officer of Orca.

"We're not sitting and cherry picking winners," Montagano told CoinDesk, describing the decision to involve competing providers rather than rely on a single company to handle tokenization, custody and trading.

The broader ambition is to demonstrate that blockchain-based trading can compete with traditional exchanges on costs and efficiency.

Montagano said the company wants to build a venue "that can be competitive with Nasdaq from a spreads perspective, from an efficiency perspective."