He Lost $14M to FTX. Now He’s Putting Real Stocks on Solana | Armani Ferrante (Backpack)

Armani Ferrante said that when FTX collapsed, 88% to nearly 90% of Backpack’s capital was held there, though he did not confirm the episode title’s exact $14 million loss figure. He said he first joined Alameda for three months in January 2018, then returned in September 2020 to work on the Solana ecosystem, not for FTX or Alameda proper. He spun out a new company around December 2021 or January 2022. The collapse shaped his approach: he believes startups should avoid shortcuts and build for the long term, especially exchanges, whose failures can affect people’s lives as well as their finances.

Backpack’s tokenized-stock model, Ferrante said, wraps a bona fide security entitlement in a new equity security redeemable one-to-one for the underlying stock. Users can transfer the tokens between a brokerage account and a self-custodial Solana wallet, then use them in on-chain markets—for liquidity, borrowing, or as collateral for perpetual futures. He distinguished this from derivatives that provide price exposure without stock ownership, and from cash-settled tokenized-stock products backed by a special-purpose vehicle. In his account, the latter cannot be transferred directly into a conventional brokerage account; converting through cash requires selling and buying another asset, which he said creates a taxable event.

Ferrante said Backpack’s stock listings on Solana have ten times the volume and liquidity, and offer better price execution for users. He cited Blockworks analysis that found up to 45 times better pricing in some cases than Robinhood tokenized stocks on Robinhood Chain. He argued that one-to-one redemption enables arbitrage between traditional exchanges and Solana. Some tokenized stocks, he said, have had days when Solana trading volume exceeded Nasdaq’s 24-hour volume. He estimated, with uncertainty, that as much as 80% of trading volume may take place on weekends, when on-chain spot markets and perpetual futures contribute to price discovery. The host said Backpack had passed $450 billion in volume, with daily volume regularly above $1 billion.

Backpack is building toward what Ferrante described as a globally regulated financial institution, spanning custody, clearing, matching and settlement, crypto and fiat rails, and brokerage services such as stock trading. He said its products were available in markets representing about 48% of global GDP, and that it had completed Europe’s “Holy Trinity” of licensing across spot, derivatives, payments, fiat rails, and equities. Backpack’s compliance-first approach is to expand market by market, rather than launch worldwide at once. Ferrante said the company has worked for several years on the UAE, European, Japanese, and U.S. markets, with the aim of connecting them through one global system, a single order book, and shared liquidity.

In the U.S., Ferrante said Backpack has public applications across the CFTC licensing spectrum for a clearinghouse, a market, and a futures commission merchant, but declined to discuss their progress. He characterized the U.S. innovation exemption for tokenized trading venues on public blockchains as early and restrictive, and said the tokenized-stock models discussed were not then available to U.S. users. Backpack combines perpetual futures and margin trading with a self-custodial wallet that connects to applications across blockchains. Ferrante called tokenized stocks its fastest-growing segment; the interviewer cited the company’s stated goal of offering 10,000 tokenized stocks on Solana. Ferrante said Solana suits Backpack because of its technology, applications, liquidity, growth, and ecosystem.

Ferrante’s broader aim is to bring regulated crypto and traditional markets together, including stock portfolios, derivatives, DeFi, and money transfers, with dollars and euros alongside crypto. He contrasted traditional stock ownership, where investors may receive cash dividends and other corporate-action benefits, with DeFi, where benefits could accrue in kind—for example, an Apple holding increasing from one share to 1.01 shares. He also said Backpack’s token is meant to bootstrap a two-sided exchange network by rewarding makers, takers, and liquidity providers, while warning that tokens can attract participation without supporting durable company-building when launches depend on hype and retail buyers become exit liquidity.

Ferrante said Backpack has issued no token warrants and gave no tokens to founders, board members, executives, investors, or employees; those groups hold equity instead. Tokens on the company’s balance sheet are locked until one year after an IPO or similar equity exit. He said BP stakers are allocated 20% of the company on the day of the token generation event, with an issuance schedule showing their share of the pool in real time; new shares issued in an IPO can dilute that percentage. An IPO is Backpack’s goal, not a guarantee, and Ferrante said the company will not go public this year.