$40 billion valuation, $500 million funding secured—why does Ripple say no to an IPO?

After raising $500 million, Ripple’s valuation soared to $40 billion, yet it explicitly stated that there are no short-term IPO plans. This decision reflects not a funding shortage but a critical strategic shift for a crypto company: upgrading from a single payment service to a comprehensive financial infrastructure platform.

Market Signals Behind the Funding

This funding round was completed in November 2025, attracting heavyweight institutions from traditional finance and crypto sectors, including Fortress Investment Group, Citadel Securities, Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard, and Marshall Wace. The investor lineup itself is a strong signal: a joint endorsement from major traditional financial institutions and crypto funds indicates that Ripple’s business model has gained broad institutional recognition.

Valuation jumped from $11.3 billion at the beginning of 2025 to $40 billion, an increase of over 250%. This not only reflects the impact of the funding scale but more importantly, market recognition of Ripple’s business transformation.

Why Opt for No IPO for Now

Ripple President Monica Long candidly stated in an interview on January 6th: the company has not set a specific timeline for going public. She emphasized two core reasons:

First, ample capital support makes an IPO unnecessary. Traditional companies mainly choose IPOs to raise growth capital and liquidity, but Ripple currently boasts a strong balance sheet and sufficient cash reserves. This $500 million raise further reinforces that point.

Second, the absence of public market pressures offers greater strategic flexibility. Public companies need to meet quarterly performance expectations and cope with stock price volatility, which can limit long-term strategic execution. Ripple’s choice to remain private allows it to focus on business integration and product innovation without being distracted by short-term stock performance.

Business Integration Becomes 2026 Focus

With the funding secured, Ripple’s focus has shifted to execution. In 2025, the company carried out a series of intensive acquisitions:

• Hidden Road ($1.25 billion): making Ripple the first crypto-native company with a global multi-asset prime brokerage business
• GTreasury ($1 billion): entering the enterprise treasury management space
• Rail ($200 million): expanding payment platform capabilities
• Palisade: enhancing compliance and custody capabilities

CEO Brad Garlinghouse has stated that starting in 2026, the M&A pace will slow, with strategic focus shifting to integration and scaling. This means Ripple has completed the major pieces of its business puzzle; the next task is to realize synergies from these acquisitions.

From Payments to Platform: Strategic Shift

This series of actions reflects Ripple’s core strategic evolution: no longer just a cross-border payment tool, but building a comprehensive financial infrastructure platform covering payments, financing, clearing, custody, and financial management.

Within this framework, the role of XRP is also evolving. The stablecoin RLUSD’s market cap is expected to surpass $1 billion by the end of 2025, and new features on the XRP Ledger—including lending and privacy tools—are expected to go live this quarter. These developments are supplementing the infrastructure of Ripple’s “financial platform” ecosystem.

Summary

Ripple’s “no IPO” decision fundamentally reflects a shift from a funding-driven to a business-driven approach. Ample capital, institutional backing, and a complete business ecosystem make going public no longer a necessary choice. Instead, maintaining flexibility, focusing on integration, and building long-term competitiveness are a more strategic path.

What does this mean for the crypto industry? It may indicate that leading companies have moved from “how to raise capital” to “how to build moats.” Over the next two years, whether Ripple can successfully integrate these acquisitions and realize synergies will determine if its $40 billion valuation truly justifies this number.