In an innovative proposal, the Solana Policy Institute (SPI), a non-profit platform focused on educating policymakers about decentralized networks, has requested permission from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to trade funds, stocks, and bonds on public blockchains.
To facilitate quick settlements, round-the-clock trading, and unparalleled transparency, the “Project Open” initiative aims to tokenize conventional securities, potentially transforming the future capital markets.
The 18-month Project Open pilot program was submitted on April 30, 2025, to enable U.S. businesses to issue tokenized assets on blockchains such as Solana. Wallet creator Phantom, registered investment advisor Superstate, law firm Lowenstein Sandler, and decentralized exchange Orca are all part of the alliance supporting the plan.
Collectively, they aim to demonstrate that public blockchains can enhance market efficiency while operating within existing regulatory frameworks.
The concept would use smart contracts to ensure programmable compliance and represent stocks and bonds as “Token Shares” on the blockchain. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and other conventional middlemen would be omitted, and transactions would settle in several seconds.
Securities would be issued by Superstate, an SEC-registered asset manager, and traded on the Orca exchange. Orca would also incorporate Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures.
What Lies Ahead for the Solana Initiative
Project Open is part of a broader push to tokenize real-world assets (RWAs). In March 2025, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) announced a partnership with Google Cloud to trial asset tokenization by 2026, intending to achieve 24/7 trading. Meanwhile, platforms like Ondo Finance and Converge are developing blockchain infrastructure designed explicitly for institutional tokenization.
There are still criticisms regarding whether public blockchains, such as Solana (SOL), can meet Wall Street’s demands for scalability and security. Yet SPI emphasizes Solana’s high throughput (65,000 transactions per second) and low fees as ideal for mass adoption.
If approved, Project Open could launch as early as late 2025, with a select group of issuers tokenizing equities and bonds. The pilot’s success hinges on balancing innovation with investor protection, a challenge SPI acknowledges.
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