Ripple Valued at $40 Billion Amid Growing Stablecoin Popularity

Digital asset infrastructure provider Ripple said it is now a $40 billion company.

The firm announced the new valuation Wednesday (Nov. 5) following a $500 million strategic investment from funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group, affiliates of Citadel Securities, Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard and Marshall Wace.

“This investment reflects both Ripple’s incredible momentum, and further validation of the market opportunity we’re aggressively pursuing by some of the most trusted financial institutions in the world,” Brad Garlinghouse , Ripple’s CEO, said in a news release.

“We started in 2012 with one use case – payments – and have expanded that success into custody, stablecoins, prime brokerage and corporate treasury, leveraging digital assets like XRP. Today, Ripple stands as the partner for institutions looking to access crypto and blockchain.”

The release noted that the investment comes amid a “record year of growth,” for Ripple, which earlier this year acquired stablecoin infrastructure company Rail , adding capabilities to Ripple Payments as a full-service cross-border platform, using Ripple USD (RLUSD) and XRP.

RLUSD, the company, said, crossed a $1 billion market cap this week, coming less than a year after its launch. Ripple also recently finalized its acquisition of Hidden Road , now known as Ripple Prime, where RLUSD was already being used as collateral.

“In a post- GENIUS Act world, institutions are increasingly turning to trusted stablecoins like RLUSD for use cases such as treasury payments and collateral – a key reason why Ripple acquired GTreasury in October,” the release added.

GTreasury, the company noted, manages trillions of dollars of volume for its Fortune 500 customers who want to use stablecoins and digital assets to move money.

As covered here last month, stablecoin payment volume has surged in the wake of the aforementioned GENIUS Act, the U.S.’s first major stablecoin legislation .

Upwards of $10 billion flowed through stablecoins in August for goods, services and transfers, according to a report by blockchain data provider Artemis Analytics . That’s up from $6 billion in February and more than twice the volume from August of last year. Stablecoin payments could hit $122 billion over the course of a full year, Artemis said.

“It’s well understood that stablecoins have graduated from merely being a tool used by crypto traders and exchanges to conveniently move money around without relying on banks, to a more widely used tool for consumer and enterprise payments,” the report added.