Solana’s Orca and Loopscale Merge to Finance AI, Robotics and Defense

Solana-based decentralized exchange Orca and lending platform Loopscale have merged under a new name, Formation, in a bid to help businesses raise capital and eventually access regulated U.S. markets. Loopscale co-founder Luke Truitt will lead the combined organization as CEO.

From Trading and Lending to Asset Finance

Formation aims to combine Orca’s trading infrastructure with Loopscale’s lending and investment vaults. The stated goal is to give emerging assets a path from issuance to financing and trading within a single platform, rather than treating liquidity and credit as separate functions.

The group is targeting capital-intensive sectors including artificial intelligence, energy, robotics and defense. Formation said conventional financing can be too expensive for smaller deals, creating an opportunity for on-chain structures to reduce costs and broaden access to capital.

The organization plans to eventually connect these financing activities with regulated U.S. capital markets. Over the next 12 months, it expects to introduce new tools for asset issuers and additional investment strategies.

Existing Tokens and Institutional Links Remain

The merger does not eliminate the two protocols’ existing roles in the ecosystem. Both Orca and Loopscale will remain foundations of the ORCA and xORCA token network. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction.

Formation said it is already working with Figure, Shinhan Asset Management, Superstate, R3 and Securitize on bringing assets to market and distributing them. Those relationships align with Orca’s expanding focus on tokenized finance, including an August proof-of-concept involving a tokenized Korean won bond fund with Shinhan Asset Management, the Solana Foundation and Etherfuse.

The platforms bring substantial activity to the combination:

• Orca: More than $550 billion in trading volume processed since 2021.
• Loopscale: More than $150 million in deposits and over $2 billion in facilitated loans.
• Funding: Orca raised $18 million in 2021, while Loopscale, formerly known as Birdgesplit, raised $4.25 million that year.

What This Means

The merger represents a broader DeFi strategy for Solana, moving beyond exchange activity and lending toward tokenized real-world assets and financing for businesses. If Formation can turn its issuer tools and investment strategies into usable products, it could give smaller or specialized companies a more direct route to capital and secondary liquidity.

The ambition also brings execution and regulatory challenges. Access to U.S. capital markets will require navigating compliance and investor protections, while the success of the model will depend on attracting credible issuers, lenders and buyers. For now, Formation’s roadmap signals that Solana-based financial infrastructure is pursuing a role in markets far beyond crypto-native trading.