Ripple announces a $200 million share purchase and predicts a bright future in 2022

All Series C shares initially granted to Tetragon Financial Group, SBI Holdings, and Route 66 Ventures in December 2019 have been repurchased by the firm.

Ripple, a blockchain payments company based in San Francisco, has announced a $200 million Series C share buyback, bringing the company’s valuation to a new high of $15 billion.

Ripple raised $200 million in a Series C funding round in December 2019, with Tetragon Financial Group, a UK-based investment business, leading the way alongside SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission, however, filed a $1.3 billion financial lawsuit against Ripple Labs, co-founder Chris Larsen, and CEO Brad Garlinghouse in December 2020, alleging the defendants of utilising the native XRP coin as an unregulated digital asset security.

Intent on disassociating themselves with Ripple amid their high-profile and openly public lawsuit, Tetragon sued Ripple in early January 2021 in the Delaware Chancery Court, seeking to enact its contractual obligation of a buyback clause to the value of its undisclosed investment sum.

However, just three months later in April, the court ruled in favor of Ripple and against the plaintiff, Tetragon, putting an end to the financial dispute.

In choosing to willingly purchase the shares from Tetragon, SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures, it implies that Ripple is seeking to enhance its financial strength, a sentiment that Garlinghouse eluded to in a recent tweet thread.

“Even with 2021’s headwinds, it was our best year on record,” he stated, revealing that the company’s $1-billion bank balance makes it the “strongest we’ve ever been.”

RippleX – full speed ahead on establishing a multitude of capabilities to the XRP Ledger – NFTs, CBDCs, interoperability bridges, sidechains and so much more – working hand in hand with devs and partners around the world. It’s a multichain world after all 😁 4/4

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 26, 2022

Alongside the news of buyback and valuation, Garlinghouse also shared optimism for the future of RippleNet and Ripple X, the latter of which is posed to enhance the utility of the XRP Ledger in an array of emerging sectors, including nonfungible tokens, central bank digital currencies, as well as interoperable, multichain functionalities, among others.

Upon reaching out to Ripple for greater clarity around their ambitions, a representative spokesperson stated that the purchasing decision was made due to their “extremely strong position in the market”, citing that the company is “cash flow positive” and has a “strong balance sheet.”

Alongside this, they noted that Ripple experienced its “best hiring year in 2021” and that it is now seeking to onboard “hundreds of global employees this year” to support the already existing 500-employee workforce.

Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.