Blockchain-based tech firm Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced via Twitter that it repurchased a December 2019 series C equity shares at a whopping $15 billion valuation. At the time of the previous raise, Ripple’s valuation stood at $10 billion. Interestingly the firm buying back the stock from investors includes Tetragon, a firm that filed suit against the tech firm last year.
It needs to be mentioned that Tetragon a UK-based investment management group was among the leading investors in the Series C round and in January 2021, sued Ripple to force it to buy back $175 million in shares. A lawsuit that Ripple Labs representatives deemed ‘opportunistic.’ But on March 5 2021 a Delaware Chancery Court judge rejected the redemption request by Tetragon Financial Group Ltd.
Having said that, Garlinghouse in a series of tweets mentions that the buyback reflected Ripple’s robust position stated,
“2022 “slow down” is not in our vocabulary. Even with 2021’s headwinds, it was our best year on record, and Ripple’s financial position [$1B in the bank] is the strongest we’ve ever been.”
The latest move also comes in the middle of its current legal battle with the SEC which is being closely watched across the world for its potential to legally define XRP and many other cryptocurrencies.
Ripple and SEC ongoing skirmish update
In December 2020, the SEC sued Ripple Labs and two leading executives, alleging that its sale of XRP token comes under unregistered securities offering worth over US$1.38 billion. The payments technology firm in its defense argued that the SEC did not provide fair notice and accused it against bias behavior.
The ongoing tussle took a surprise turn when on January 13, 2022, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn ordered the top agency to hand over the documents, that includes notes of private SEC meetings with third parties over Ethereum and the draft of a controversial 2018 speech by then SEC director William Hinman that declared Bitcoin and Ether were not securities.
But the federal agency in its response asked for more time to argue against the disclosure order and Netburn is now giving the commission nearly a month time to do so.