Crypto Company Ripple Buys Back Shares Worth IDR 4.4 Trillion, Postpones IPO Plan In US

Ripple, blockchain-based remittance company and crypto developer XRP. (Photo; Doc. CloudminingPro)

JAKARTA - Ripple Labs, a blockchain-based payment company and developer of XRP, plans to buy back its $285 million shares from early investors and employees. This was revealed by two anonymous sources, as reported by Reuters.

The share repurchase shows that Ripple has a valuation of 11.3 billion US dollars (Rp 175.6 trillion). Investors willing to sell their shares can do so up to a maximum of 6% of their holdings in Ripple, which is a private company. Ripple has confirmed this plan and stated that it will allocate $500 million for share repurchase, including conversion and tax fees.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, said that share buybacks will be made regularly to increase liquidity for investors. He also said that Ripple had no plans to take the floor on the US stock exchange, as it still faces regulatory uncertainty.

Garlinghouse revealed that Ripple has cash of more than USD 1 billion (IDR 15.5 trillion) and a crypto portfolio of more than USD 25 billion (IDR 388.6 trillion), most of which consists of XRP coins.

The share repurchase plan comes after Ripple won a lawsuit from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accusing Ripple of selling illegal securities in the form of XRP. However, a US district judge ruled that XRP sales on the crypto market did not violate securities rules.

Ripple was founded in 2012 focusing on developing cross-border payment systems that leverage blockchain and crypto technology. In May 2023, Ripple acquired Metaco, a Swiss crypto custodial company, worth $250 million.

Despite the challenges during the SEC's lawsuit, Garlinghouse stressed that Ripple continues to grow, with 95% of customers coming from financial institutions outside the US. However, Ripple did not disclose details of their payment business.

XRP, Ripple's mainstay cryptocurrency, experienced a recent price decline. Currently, XRP is trading at Rp9,320 at 20:23 WIB with a market capitalization of US$31.06 billion (Rp482.6 trillion), down 3% in the last 24 hours according to Coinecko data.