Investors Considered Ripple to Be 90% Tied to XRP — Proposed $500M Offer Came With Safeguards: Bloomberg

Institutional investors who joined Ripple’s recent $500 million fundraising round largely concluded that the company’s value is overwhelmingly tied to XRP, estimating that at least 90% of its net asset value reflects exposure to the token, according to a Bloomberg report. XRP, though closely linked to Ripple, is legally distinct—but Ripple still held about $124 billion worth of the token in its treasury as of July market prices.

Ripple’s share sale attracted some of the most prominent names in global finance, including Citadel Securities, Fortress Investment Group, Marshall Wace, Brevan Howard–affiliated funds, Galaxy Digital and Pantera Capital. The deal valued Ripple at $40 billion, setting a record for a privately held crypto firm. Yet the investment only went through after institutions negotiated an unusually robust set of protections rarely seen in late-stage tech rounds.

Bloomberg’s Ryan Weeks reports that several funds viewed the investment less as a traditional equity bet and more as a concentrated position in a single, volatile crypto asset. To mitigate that risk, investors secured three major safeguards:

The option to sell their shares back to Ripple after three or four years with a guaranteed 10% annualized return.
A 25% annualized return if Ripple initiates a forced buyback.
A liquidation preference granting them priority over existing shareholders in a sale or insolvency.

These terms effectively provide a built-in floor under the investors’ capital, mirroring structures more commonly found in structured-credit markets than in late-stage venture financings. Their adoption underscores how traditional finance is reshaping risk management for crypto-linked deals.

XRP has fallen roughly 40% since peaking in mid-July amid a broader market downturn through October and November.

Meanwhile, U.S. spot XRP ETFs are nearing the $1 billion inflow mark after 15 consecutive days of net subscriptions—a streak supported in part by the SEC’s August ruling clarifying that XRP itself is not a security.