Ripple, the company behind the XRP cryptocurrency, has today revealed a $200 million funding round, valuing the company at $10 billion.
Ripple’s news, announced on the company website, sent the XRP price sharply higher, up around 4% on the last 24-hour trading period, to $0.19 per XRP token.
[Update 4:31am EST 12/21/2019] The XRP price failed to continue its rise yesterday, ending the day up around 3% and leaving traders and investors disappointed Ripple’s massive $10 billion valuation didn’t send XRP soaring. XRP’s gains didn’t translate to gains for the wider bitcoin and cryptocurrency market, with most major tokens flatlining.
Ripple’s chief executive Brad Garlinghouse has been working to build up the company’s customer base … [+]
Ripple’s XRP is the world’s third biggest cryptocurrency, behind bitcoin and ethereum but has had a difficult year as the world’s biggest banks, payment providers and technology companies look to create their own digital tokens.
However, Ripple’s chief executive Brad Garlinghouse told Fortune magazine he expects the company will grow its customer base by 30% to 40% in the coming year, from 300 currently, and boasted transaction volume on the Ripple network will rise more than 600%.
Ripple’s new Series C funding round, led by global investment firm Tetragon and backed by SBI and Route 66 Ventures, will be used to grow the number of banks and payments companies using the cryptocurrency XRP for international transactions.
“We are in a strong financial position to execute against our vision. As others in the blockchain space have slowed their growth or even shut down, we have accelerated our momentum and industry leadership throughout 2019,” said Garlinghouse in a statement, adding on Twitter this is “a big end to 2019 for Ripple and for the crypto space at large.”
XRP, the digital currency Ripple created, has been on a steep downward trend all year, losing around half its value over the last 12 months.
Ripple owns some 60% of XRP tokens but most are locked in long-term storage.
Ripple’s XRP is the world’s third-biggest cryptocurrency, behind bitcoin and ethereum.
San Francisco-based Ripple earlier this year announced it had bought a stake in high street money transfer chain Moneygram, which now uses uses XRP for 15% of its transfers into Mexico.
Ripple’s XRP, one of the oldest bitcoin rivals and the third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has endured many of the cryptocurrency industry’s ups and downs since it was released in 2012, earning its fair share of fans and detractors along the way.
In October, Ripple revealed it sold $66 million worth of XRP in the third quarter of 2019–down 74% from sky-high sales of $251 million in the previous quarter.