Ripple, the company behind XRP, revealed a $500 million investment at a $40 billion valuation from investors including Pantera Capital and Galaxy Digital. The firm also launched a pilot program with Mastercard, WebBank, and Gemini to test settling credit card transactions using its stablecoin RLUSD on the XRP Ledger. XRP's price surged initially but later declined over 5%.
On Wednesday, Ripple announced a $500 million investment round valued at $40 billion, backed by crypto investment firms such as Pantera Capital and Galaxy Digital. This funding underscores Ripple's commitment to expanding its role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, as highlighted by CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who described the year as a breakthrough marked by record growth and surging XRP momentum.
In parallel, Ripple initiated a pilot program with Mastercard, WebBank, and Gemini. The initiative aims to explore settling fiat credit card transactions using the regulated stablecoin RLUSD on the XRP Ledger. This collaboration is described as “one of the first where a regulated U.S. bank settles traditional card transactions using a regulated stablecoin on a public blockchain.”
The announcements initially boosted XRP's price to $2.38, countering a broader market downturn in cryptocurrencies. However, by 11:30 a.m. ET, the token had fallen more than 5% from that peak. Meanwhile, RLUSD's supply grew 30% over the past month, pushing its market capitalization above $1 billion.
Analysts view these moves positively. Kairos Research cofounder Ian Unsworth stated, “A wider variety of players will only encourage competition, and competition is what healthy markets need to deliver the best products to end users.” Delphi Digital analyst Simon Shockey noted, “The stablecoin pilot and fundraising round show they’re trying to rebrand from a legacy token company into a full-fledged fintech and payments business.” Shockey added, “It’s hard not to see this as a precursor to going public at some point.”
These developments come amid preparations for spot XRP exchange-traded funds by Bitwise and Grayscale, which recently disclosed their fees.