Orca DEX Loopscale merger adds a lender with $150 million

Orca DEX Loopscale merger adds a lender with $150 million in deposits

Orca DEX and Loopscale announced at 7 p.m. ET on Oct. 7 that they are merging into Formation, with Loopscale bringing more than $150 million in deposits.

The quick take

Price: $ORCA traded at $2.86 as of 7:37 p.m. ET, down 11% in 24 hours and up 78% in seven days.
Trigger: Orca and Loopscale merge into a new company, Formation, led by Loopscale co-founder Luke Truitt.
Watch: the issuer tools and investment strategies Formation plans to launch over the next 12 months.

The Orca DEX Loopscale merger puts a trading venue and a lender under one roof. Orca DEX ($ORCA), a decentralized exchange on Solana ($SOL), and the credit platform Loopscale will now operate as Formation. The two teams announced the deal in a press release at 7 p.m. ET on Oct. 7.

What happened

Luke Truitt, a Loopscale co-founder, becomes chief executive of Formation. Orca’s Christopher Montagano becomes chief strategy and legal officer, and Mary Gooneratne becomes chief operating officer, the release says. Financial terms were not disclosed, The Block reported.

Orca brings its trading and liquidity tools. Loopscale brings its lending and investment vaults. Both protocols stay in place as the base of the $ORCA and $xORCA token network, according to the release.

Formation wants to carry new assets from issuance through financing and trading. It is aiming at capital-heavy fields such as AI, energy, robotics and defense. The release cites an Apollo estimate that nearly $3 trillion will be needed for AI infrastructure through 2028.

“Liquidity alone isn’t enough to scale an asset,” Montagano said in the release.

Who’s buying and selling

Loopscale reports more than $150 million in deposits and more than $2 billion in loans facilitated. The release puts Orca’s trading volume since 2021 at more than $550 billion in its main text and more than $500 billion in its company profile.

Orca DEX held $321 million in deposits at 23:41 UTC, DefiLlama data show. It handled $298 million of Solana DEX trading in 24 hours, second only to PumpSwap. In the main $ORCA pool against $SOL, DexScreener counted 36,830 buys and 35,858 sells over the same day.

What to watch next

Over the next 12 months, Formation plans tools for asset issuers and new investment strategies. It also describes a path into regulated U.S. capital markets. The company says it already works with Figure, Shinhan Asset Management, Superstate, R3 and Securitize.

Bottom line: Orca keeps its exchange and token network but now sits inside a wider financing business with a lending arm attached.