Orca, Solana's top decentralized exchange, merged with Loopscale, transforming itself into a lender

Orca and Loopscale merged to form Formation to create AI infrastructure financial pipeline

Solana ecological head decentralized exchange Orca has completed its merger with loan agreement Loopscale to jointly form a new company called Formation. The New York-based company is working to become a "credit conduit" in artificial intelligence, energy, robotics and defense. The two parties formally announced the deal on October 7, and Loopscale posted a merger FAQ on its docs website, but did not disclose specific financial terms.

A cutting-edge financial vision based on a $3 trillion AI bet

Formation's core proposition is that industries building the next generation of physical and digital infrastructure face underserved problems in traditional capital markets, and Formation was established to change this situation. Its clear target customer groups include companies in the fields of artificial intelligence, energy, robotics and defense.

Apollo Global Management estimates that by 2028, approximately US$3 trillion in financing will be needed to fill the funding gap for AI infrastructure. In addition, institutions such as Figure, Shinhan Asset Management, Superstate, R3 and Securitize have also been announced as partners of Formation to jointly promote the entry of digital assets into the market.

Luke Truitt, co-founder of Loopscale and current CEO of Formation, said: "Every major technological revolution is accompanied by a financial revolution. We are at a critical turning point, requiring capital markets to keep pace with industries reshaping the economy."

Orca's liquidity is combined with Loopscale's credit order book

New assets require both trading venues and mortgage lending channels, which is the logic behind the new company's operations. Orca already runs a centralized liquidity pool known as Whirlpools; Loopscale matches lenders and borrowers at fixed rates through an order book and added selected lending vaults in June 2026.

According to Loopscale's FAQ instructions, when combining the advantages of the two, issuers can launch trading and credit functions at the same time. The announcement on the Formation front page mentioned that since 2021, Orca has processed more than US$550 billion in transactions. Loopscale has more than $150 million in deposits and facilitated more than $2 billion in loans.

According to DefiLlama, Orca's current total lock-in value (TVL) is approximately US$316.8 million, and decentralized exchange (DEX) transaction volume in the past 30 days has exceeded US$8 billion.

Mary Gooneratne, co-founder of Loopscale, is currently Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Formation. Christopher Montagano joined Orca in 2022 as Chief Legal Officer and is now responsible for Formation's strategic and legal affairs.

Operating a tokenized securities platform under SEC innovation exemption

Formation also plans to operate a tokenized securities platform and launch issuer tools in the next 12 months. The plan relies on an SEC order issued on September 17. Regulators granted tokenized securities platforms (TSV) a five-year conditional "innovation exemption", allowing eligible platforms to trade tokenized national securities market stocks through licensed automated market makers and liquidity pools without registering as an exchange.

However, this exemption also comes with restrictions, including restrictions on trading symbols and trading volumes. Operators must meet U.S. personnel status under OFAC rules and must provide an opt-out mechanism that allows companies to refuse to be tokenized without their participation. The exemption mainly covers tokens backed by real shares.

ORCA holders face rescheduled governance votes

The merger is also intertwined with Orca's own governance structure. Its board of directors canceled an on-chain vote originally scheduled to start on October 5 and reissued the same proposal. According to updates from board members on the forum, the new voting time is set from October 11 to October 16, with a two-day cooling-off period before October 18.

The original voting deadline was October 10. The Council pointed out that it had previously encountered technical difficulties in getting xORCA pledgers to participate in voting. The proposal proposes to cut xORCA's share of the agreement fees from 40% to 10%, dissolve the board of directors, and transfer 14.2 million ORCA community treasury funds to a team-controlled "strategic account" dedicated to acquisitions.

Affected by this news, the price of Orca's native token ORCA fell by more than 16%, and is currently trading at approximately US$2.34.