ChainCatcher news, Solana-based decentralized exchange Orca and lending platform Loopscale announced a merger, the new entity named Formation. The combined team will be led by Loopscale co-founder Luke Truitt. Formation plans to combine Orca's trading infrastructure with Loopscale's lending and investment treasury to provide a one-stop path for emerging assets from issuance to financing to trading.
The company wants to expand from crypto trading and borrowing to capital-intensive areas such as AI, energy, robotics, and defense. Truitt said that cutting-edge economies are creating new business models and financing needs faster than traditional market infrastructures have evolved. Formation said traditional financing was too costly for smaller deals, with plans to reduce costs and eventually access regulated U.S. capital markets. In the coming year, Formation will launch tools and new investment strategies for asset issuers and has partnered with Figure, Shinhan Asset Management, Superstate, R3 and Securitize to drive asset listings and distribution.
Christopher Montagano of Orca, who will become Formation's chief strategy and legal officer, said liquidity alone is not enough to scale assets. The parties acknowledge that the existing agreement will remain the foundation of the Orca and xORCA token networks and that the combined financial terms are not disclosed.