Orca and Loopscale merge into Formation, setting sights on AI, robotics and defense financing

Two names familiar to Solana DeFi users are becoming one. According to The Block, Orca and Loopscale are combining into a new entity called Formation. The stated mission is not another trading feature. Formation is targeting financing for AI, energy, robotics and defense, sectors that usually raise money in boardrooms, not on blockchains. What the merger brings together Loopscale is the lending half of the pairing. It is a Solana-based protocol that went live publicly in 2025. Its specialty is fixed-rate borrowing and lending against digital assets. That makes it a bit of an outlier in DeFi, where variable rates are the norm. Loopscale also uses an order-book model to match borrowers and lenders. In a typical pool-based lending market, depositors pour funds into one shared bucket. Borrowers draw from it, and an algorithm sets the rate based on how full the bucket is. An order book works differently. Lenders post the terms they want, borrowers post what they will accept, and the protocol pairs matching offers. In March 2025, Loopscale announced an integration that accepted Orca and Raydium LP tokens, the receipts liquidity providers get when they deposit into a trading pool. That in...