San Francisco-based enterprise blockchain firm Ripple has wowed the crypto industry once again by annoucning a $500 million strategic investment from institutional investors (led by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group, Citadel Securities, and others)
The company's valuation has now swelled to a whopping $40 billion.
The investment follows strong growth in their business (payments, custody, stablecoins, prime brokerage, treasury management) and a recent tender offer to shareholders and employees. As reported by U.Today, the tender offer attracted little demand.
Ripple emphasises it has acquired firms (two of them valued over $1 billion) and is expanding globally and across use-cases.
Why this is significant
Many companies stay in the $1-10 billion "unicorn" range. This moves Ripple into the category of the largest private firms.
It is not at the very top since some private firms are valued at more than $100 billion, but it is definitely among the large-cap private companies (tens of billions).
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team