Ripple’s latest funding round has become one of the biggest crypto-related deals of the year, largely because of who participated and how the deal was structured.
According to details shared In Bloomberg’s report, big Wall Street names, including affiliates of Citadel Securities, Fortress Investment Group, Brevan Howard and Galaxy Digital, put $500 million into Ripple, giving the company a valuation of about $40 billion. This immediately made the round one of the strongest signals yet that traditional finance is have a serious interest in the XRP ecosystem.
How Wall Street structured the deal to protect itself
Early November 2025 Ripple closed a major private equity round that injected $500 million into the company, resulting in a valuation of approximately $40 billion. However, new details reveal that the most surprising part of the transaction is not the amount raised, but the deal behind it. Bloomberg reports that investors in this round didn’t just buy Ripple shares and hope the value would rise. Instead, they provided built-in protection that guarantees them profits later.
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They were given the right to sell their shares back to Ripple within three to four years at an annual return of 10%, unless Ripple goes public before then. At that rate, Ripple would have to pay about $732 million to buy back the shares after four years. That means that even if Ripple’s valuation remains the same or falls, investors will still walk away with guaranteed profits.
However, if Ripple decides to buy back the shares sooner, investors will get an even higher payout of around 25% annually. A liquidation preference was also included, meaning these investors will be the first to get paid if something goes wrong. Ripple stated in the announcement the investment round that it has repurchased more than 25% of the outstanding shares in recent years.
Why the deal is really a bet on XRP
Even though the investors bought shares in Ripple and not XRP itself, most of Ripple’s value still comes from its massive XRP holdings. According to Bloomberg, two of the funds that put in money noted that at least 90% of Ripple’s net worth is tied to XRP. However, as of July 2025, Ripple owned approximately $124 billion worth of XRP most of its XRP holdings are held in escrow.
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This means that the investment round is in reality also a bet on the long-term relevance and future market strength of XRP. If the price of XRP rises, Ripple benefits, and so do the investors who now own shares backed by a company that has one of the world’s largest reserves of digital assets.
However, the $500 million investment shows that serious investors believe in it Ripple will continue to growbut Ripple’s success is still directly linked to the XRP price.
Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com