Ripple announces completion of $200 million buyback, optimistic about 2022

Blockchain payments company Ripple has announced that it has repurchased all Series C shares issued in December 2019 to Tetragon Financial Group, SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures.

Blockchain payments company Ripple has announced a $200 million Series C share buyback, a decision that will bring the San Francisco-based tech company’s valuation to an all-time high of $15 billion.

In December 2019, Ripple raised $200 million in a Series C funding round, led by British investment firm Tetragon Financial Group, along with SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures.

However, in December 2020, the SEC filed a $1.3 billion financial lawsuit against Ripple Labs, along with co-founder Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse, accusing them of using XRP tokens as an unlicensed digital asset security sell.

Facing this high-profile lawsuit, Tetragon decided to break away from Ripple, suing Ripple in the Delaware Supreme Court in early January 2021, hoping to activate the buyback clause in the contract.

However, just three months later, in April, the court ruled in favor of Ripple, hitting back plaintiff Tetragon’s request and ending the financial dispute.

In choosing to proactively buy shares from Tetragon, SBI Holdings, and Route 66 Ventures, it means Ripple is planning to strengthen its financials, a plan Garlinghouse vaguely hinted at in a recent tweet.

"Even with the headwinds in 2021, it's our best year ever," he said, revealing that the company's $1 billion bank balance made last year "our strongest year ever."

In addition to the buyback and valuation news, Garlinghouse also shared optimism about the future of RippleNet and Ripple X, the latter of which is believed to enhance the utility of the XRP ledger in a range of emerging areas, including non-fungible tokens, central banks Digital currencies and interoperable multi-chain capabilities and more.

When contacted by Ripple to learn more about their plans, a representative spokesperson said the buyback decision was based on their "strong positioning in the market," noting that the company was "cash flow positive." , and has a "strong balance sheet".

At the same time, they noted that Ripple “has had its best hiring year in 2021” and plans to add “hundreds of new global employees this year” to support its existing workforce of 500.