Solana DeFi Platforms Orca and Loopscale Merge to Form Formation

Solana decentralized exchange Orca and lending protocol Loopscale announced Wednesday they are merging into a single company called Formation, headquartered in New York and led by Loopscale co-founder Luke Truitt as CEO. Financial terms were not disclosed. Formation combines Orca's trading infrastructure with Loopscale's credit order book and vaults, letting issuers launch assets with trading and credit live from day one. Orca has processed more than $550 billion in trading volume since 2021; Loopscale reports over $150 million in deposits and more than $2 billion in loans facilitated. ORCA will serve as the token for all of Formation, and Loopscale will not launch its own, according to Loopscale's FAQ. Loopscale points continue accruing and will convert later this year. Formation is targeting AI, energy, robotics, and defense companies. It plans to operate a tokenized securities venue under the SEC's Sept. 17 innovation exemption, a five-year order permitting permissioned automated market maker pools to trade tokenized U.S.-listed stocks without exchange registration. Existing Loopscale operations and positions remain unchanged.