Ripple’s latest funding round became one of the largest cryptocurrency deals this year, largely because of who joined and how the deal was structured.
According to details shared According to a Bloomberg report, major Wall Street names including Citadel Securities, Fortress Investment Group, Brevan Howard and Galaxy Digital have donated $500 million to Ripple, valuing the company at around $40 billion. This immediately turned this round into one of the strongest signs that time-honored finance is here take a sedate interest in this XRP ecosystem.
How Wall Street structured the deal to protect itself
In early November 2025, Ripple closed the main direction a private equity round that injected $500 million into the company, giving it a valuation of around $40 billion. However, recent details show that the most surprising part of the deal is not the amount raised, but the deal behind it. Bloomberg reports that investors in this round did not simply buy Ripple shares in the hope that their value would escalate. Instead, they secured built-in safeguards that would guarantee their future profits.
They were given the right to resell their shares to Ripple within three to four years at an annual rate of return of 10%, unless Ripple goes public earlier. At this rate, Ripple would have to pay approximately $732 million to buy back shares after four years. This means that even if Ripple’s valuation remains unchanged or declines, investors will still walk away with guaranteed profits.
However, if Ripple decides to repurchase shares early, investors will receive an even higher payout of approximately 25% on an annual basis. Liquidation preference is also included, meaning these investors will get paid first if something goes wrong. Ripple noted in its announcement investment round that it has purchased over 25% of the outstanding shares over the last few years.
Why this trade is actually a bet on XRP
Even though investors bought shares of Ripple and not XRP itself, most of Ripple’s value still comes from its huge stake in XRP. According to Bloomberg, two of the funds that contributed money noted that at least 90% of Ripple’s net worth is tied to XRP. However, in July 2025, Ripple held approximately $124 billion worth of XRP most of the XRP holdings are held in an escrow account.
This means that the investment round is actually also a bet on XRP’s long-term relevance and future market strength. If the price of XRP increases, Ripple will benefit, as will investors who currently have capital secured by a company that is in one of the world’s largest reserves of digital assets.
However, the $500 million investment shows that sedate investors believe Ripple will continue to growbut the success of Ripple is still directly tied to the price of XRP.
Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com
