Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Ripple has raised $500 million from major institutional investors, including Fortress Investment and Citadel Securities, and is now valued at $40 billion.
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The funding round comes as Ripple has been expanding its presence in the crypto space via new acquisitions and offerings.
Ripple Raises $500M from Institutional Investors
Blockchain and digital assets company Ripple announced on Wednesday that it raised $500 million in a new strategic investment round led by Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities.
This latest funding round brings the company’s valuation to $40 billion. Other participants included Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard, and Marshall Wace.
In a statement, Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO, stated that,
This investment reflects both Ripple’s incredible momentum and further validation of the market opportunity we’re aggressively pursuing by some of the most trusted financial institutions in the world. We started in 2012 with one use case — payments — and have expanded that success into custody, stablecoins, prime brokerage and corporate treasury, leveraging digital assets like XRP. Today, Ripple stands as the partner for institutions looking to access crypto and blockchain.
This latest development comes less than 48 hours after Ripple completed the acquisition of cryptocurrency wallet firm Palisade as it seeks to expand its institutional offerings. Palisade’s wallet-as-a-service platform will be integrated into Ripple Custody. This will be crucial to Ripple’s operations as Ripple Custody is a product designed for banks and corporates handling digital assets, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets.
The company added that this latest funding is structured as new common equity and expands Ripple’s investor base to include some of the biggest names in finance.
Ripple has been extending its offerings in the cryptocurrency space. Over the last two years, the company has acquired six firms, including two billion-dollar-plus deals, among them, custody provider Metaco, stablecoin platform Rail, Palisade, and treasury firm GTreasury.
Ripple also launched its RLUSD stablecoin a few months ago, and it now has a market cap of over $1 billion.
