Ripple, the company behind the popular cryptocurrency XRP, is planning a $285 million share buyback from its earliest investors and employees, according to a Wednesday report from Reuters.
- The tender offer would value the company at $11.3 billion, and only allow investors to sell up to 6% of their stake, anonymous sources told the media outlet.
- Confirming the news, Ripple said it would spend $500 million on the buyback, covering both taxes and conversion costs on restricted stock units.
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse clarified that the company has no plans to go public soon due to U.S. regulatory uncertainty. Similar share buybacks will become a common occurrence going forward to create investor liquidity.
- The CEO said Ripple’s balance sheet is currently worth over $26 billion, mostly comprised of units of its cryptocurrency XRP.
- XRP’s total market cap is roughly $31 billion, according to CoinGecko.
- The asset nearly doubled in value after Ripple won its lawsuit against market regulators in March, with the court ruling that XRP is not a security. It has retraced all of its gains since then, however.
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“Growing in the headwinds of the SEC lawsuit was certainly a challenge, but 95% of our customers are non-US financial institutions,” said Garlinghouse.
- The CEO refused to disclose the size of Ripple’s payments business.
