Ripple Secures $15 Billion Valuation Following Shares Buyback

Ripple (XRP) reported yesterday that it has initiated a buyback of the shares from its investors who funded its $200 million Series C investment round in December 2019. The cryptocurrency payment company revealed that the latest share purchase brings its valuation to $15 billion, a significant jump from the $9.8 billion valuation status it had at the time of the Series C round.

The recent buyback and new valuation say a lot about how confident Ripple is about its prospects, despite the ongoing SEC lawsuit that shook the company between late 2020 and early 2021. The lawsuit alleges that Ripple Labs and its top executives sold XRP tokens to the public as unlicensed security.

Commenting on the latest development, a Ripple spokesperson noted that the cryptocurrency company made the buyback with cash it had at hand. The representative cited “our extremely strong position in the market,” adding that “Ripple is cash flow positive, has $1B in the bank and a strong balance sheet.”

Investors involved in the selling end of the buyback include Series C lead investor Tetragon Financial group, which took the crypto company to court in 2020 in what was a failed attempt to exit the investment following the SEC lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Ripple also noted that 2021 was its most successful year on record, revealing that the volume of its payment business doubled in 2021 and that its on-demand liquidity operations had grown to 22 markets from the three markets it served in 2020.

Key Ripple Levels to Watch — December 26

XRP, along with most of the crypto market, suffered a significant beating over the last few days, as the cryptocurrency fell by over 26% between last Thursday and Tuesday. That said, the seventh-largest cryptocurrency appears to have negated the bearish bias at the $0.5500 line, following two consecutive rejections from that base.

XRP attempted the $0.6500 resistance earlier today but failed to sustain the momentum, sparking concerns if the bearish trend is indeed over. The cryptocurrency needs to push back into the converging channel zone at $.08000 to confirm a change in bias. However, with the current price action, I suspect another retest of the $0.5500 support is imminent and could drive another bear wave for XRP.

Meanwhile, my resistance levels are $0.6500, $0.6800, and $0.6700, and my support levels are $0.6000, $0.5800, and $0.5500.

Total Market Capitalization: $1.65 trillion

Ripple Market Capitalization: $29.4 billion

Ripple Dominance: 1.78%

Market Rank: #7