Ripple Labs, the company behind XRP cryptocurrency, is repurchasing $285 million worth of its shares from early investors and employees, as per two sources familiar with the situation. This buyback values Ripple at $11.3 billion. Investors are limited to selling a maximum of 6% of their holdings, as stated by the sources who wished to remain anonymous.

The company has confirmed this tender offer and plans to allocate $500 million for the buyback. This fund will also cover costs related to converting restricted stock units into shares and associated taxes. Ripple's CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, mentioned that the company does not intend to go public in the U.S. soon due to regulatory uncertainties. Instead, it aims to conduct regular share buybacks to provide liquidity for investors.

Garlinghouse revealed that Ripple currently has over $1 billion in cash and over $25 billion in crypto assets, primarily XRP coins, on its balance sheet. This buyback follows Ripple's legal victory against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where a judge ruled that XRP sales on public exchanges were not unregistered securities offerings.

Founded in 2012, Ripple focuses on building a payment system for cross-border transactions and promoting XRP usage. Last May, it acquired the Switzerland-based crypto custody firm Metaco for $250 million. Despite challenges from the SEC lawsuit, Garlinghouse highlighted that 95% of Ripple's customers are non-U.S. financial institutions. He did not disclose the size of the payment business.

As of Wednesday, XRP's market capitalization stood at $30 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Reuters