On November 5th, digital asset and infrastructure company Ripple announced the completion of a $500 million strategic funding round, reaching a post-money valuation of $40 billion. This marks the company's largest external funding round since its Series C in 2019 ($200 million, $10 billion valuation), representing a fourfold increase in valuation over six years.

This funding round was co-led by Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities, with participation from institutions including Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard, and Marshall Wace. It ranks as the third-largest single funding transaction in the crypto primary market for 2025, surpassed only by Polymarket's $2 billion strategic funding in October and Binance's $2 billion minority equity transaction in March.

Regarding the use of funds, Ripple stated it will focus on continued mergers and acquisitions, the global expansion of RLUSD, and compliance infrastructure development. Since the beginning of this year, Ripple has initiated a strategic investment plan exceeding $4 billion, acquiring institutional broker Hidden Road ($1.25 billion), corporate treasury management platform GTreasury ($1 billion), payment infrastructure Rail ($200 million), and digital asset custodian Palisade (amount undisclosed).

It is reported that Ripple (also known as 瑞波) is a global cross-border payment network based on a distributed ledger, created by Ripple Labs. It claims to enable secure, instant, and nearly free global financial transactions of any size. Ripple's business consists of the cross-border payment network (RippleNet), the compliant stablecoin (RLUSD), the enterprise-grade public blockchain (XRPL), and an institutional-grade M&A ecosystem. According to RootData, XRP's current price is $2.33, up 7.2% in 24 hours, but down 20% over the past month. It ranks 4th globally by market capitalization, with a total market cap of $139.8 billion and a circulating supply of 60.1 billion tokens.

From a valuation perspective, the $40 billion valuation is significantly higher than most comparable projects. Public information shows that in the stablecoin sector, Circle's NYSE listing implies a market cap of approximately $25 billion, while Paxos is valued at around $2.4 billion. In the public blockchain infrastructure track, Polygon is valued at about $7 billion, with Sui and Aptos at approximately $6 billion and $4.5 billion respectively. In the payment network space, Stellar's market cap is around $9 billion. Ripple's high valuation partly stems from the growth potential of its XRPL public blockchain and RLUSD, but is also influenced by the liquidity premium associated with its non-public status. Ripple President Monica Long stated that the company currently has no IPO plans or timeline, which may prolong the uncertainty regarding investor exit paths.

Looking at individual business lines, as the large funding news broke, on November 6th, the total circulation of Ripple's compliant stablecoin RLUSD surpassed $1 billion for the first time. Within just 330 days of launch, this stablecoin has entered DefiLlama's rankings as the 11th largest USD stablecoin globally. Its current circulation is $1.022 billion, with $819 million on the Ethereum chain and $203 million natively circulating on the XRP Ledger.

Ripple President Monica Long stated that Ripple has processed nearly $100 billion in payment volume to date, and RLUSD is the "primary stablecoin" used for payment flows. However, in a stablecoin market dominated by USDT ($183 billion) and USDC ($76 billion), RLUSD's market share remains relatively small, posing ongoing liquidity competition risks.

Regarding the XRPL public blockchain, as Ripple's technical core, it already serves over 500 financial institutions globally, with an annualized transaction volume approaching $95 billion. A recent XRPL upgrade introduced an EVM-compatible sidechain and collaboration with Polygon CDK, enhancing its smart contract capabilities. XRPL's DeFi ecosystem is relatively underdeveloped; DefiLlama data shows XRPL's DeFi TVL is only $79.59 million (ranked 49th), far below mainstream chains like Solana ($10.1 billion) and Ethereum ($74.7 billion).

Furthermore, news emerged today that Mastercard will partner with Gemini and Ripple to explore using the RLUSD stablecoin on XRPL for settling fiat card transactions. Gemini's XRP credit card backend settlement is fully migrating to the XRP Ledger, utilizing RLUSD to achieve final settlement within approximately 3 seconds. Mastercard stated this collaboration will be one of the first cases where a regulated US bank uses a public blockchain and a regulated stablecoin to settle traditional card transactions, potentially reducing merchant costs.

Thus, the funding provides endorsement for RLUSD growth, the stablecoin's scale injects liquidity for real-time credit card settlement, and the Mastercard collaboration validates the feasibility of compliant public blockchains replacing traditional rails. These three developments form a positive feedback loop, potentially signaling Ripple's transition from a "blockchain version of SWIFT" concept towards a revenue-driven global settlement infrastructure.

However, Ripple currently faces two key regulatory events. First is the progress of XRP spot ETF approvals. The XRP spot ETF applications submitted by seven institutions—Grayscale, Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, Canary Capital, 21Shares, and CoinShares—were collectively updated on November 4th, removing the originally stipulated indefinite delay clause and replacing it with the automatic effectiveness mechanism used for Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. The earliest batches are expected to become effective between November 13th and 15th. Polymarket prediction markets indicate a 99% probability of approval within 2025.

It is worth noting that the REX-Osprey XRP ETF (ticker XRPR) was listed on September 18th, with a first-day trading volume of $37.7 million, setting the record for the highest single-day debut volume this year. If the subsequent seven ETFs are approved, they could attract more compliant capital, providing XRP with a deeper liquidity pool and helping to mitigate extreme volatility in the long term.

Second is the US bank charter application. Ripple submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Ripple National Trust Bank on July 2nd, 2025. It is currently in the 120-day statutory review period, with preliminary results expected by November 2nd, 2026, at the latest. According to the latest status on the OCC website, Circle's application (First National Digital Currency Bank) from June 30th has exceeded the 120-day review period and remains unapproved; Paxos applied on August 12th and is under review; Coinbase applied on October 3rd and is under review.

Ripple is among the earlier batch of applicants. If the charter is approved, RLUSD reserves could be deposited directly into a master account at the Federal Reserve, enabling 24/7 real-time minting and redemption. Ripple would become the second crypto-native enterprise to hold a federal trust charter, after Anchorage Digital. This, combined with the potential XRP ETF approval, would create a dual regulatory positive, boosting institutional adoption confidence and capital inflows.

Overall, Ripple has recently seen a series of positive developments. However, breaking down its business segments reveals intense competition in the stablecoin arena, insufficient competitiveness for XRPL among public blockchains, and a cross-border payment business still primarily reliant on traditional methods. Under multifaceted competitive pressures and regulatory uncertainty, whether through regulatory breakthroughs or partnerships with Mastercard, the ability to sustain a $40 billion valuation ultimately depends on the realization of promised data and performance. The market has already cast its vote.