Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says the company’s recent multi billion-dollar valuation – which cemented the company’s status as one of the largest fintech firms in the US – should have been higher.
In a new interview on CNN’s First Move, Garlinghouse says Ripple now holds more than $15 billion worth of XRP. That number alone is higher than the $10 billion valuation Ripple attained in a recent $200 million Series C funding round.
“I think any time you have new investors come in, you are intimidated by the expectations that are set. By the same token, Ripple at today’s XRP price owns somewhere north of $15 billion worth of crypto. So in some ways, those investors came in at a discount.
We are in a very fortunate position with a very strong balance sheet. We’re in a very fortunate position to have a lot of customer momentum, and I think it’s because we’ve focused on solving a real problem for real customers.”
Ripple owns more than half of the total supply of XRP, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Although the company releases quarterly reports on the amount of XRP it sells, it does not publicly disclose the exact amount that remains in its possession.
Garlinghouse is also clarifying his recent statement on the chances of Ripple going public. He says a Ripple IPO is inevitable, but the timeline is unknown.
“What I said was 2020 will likely have crypto and blockchain IPOs. And I think what I said was Ripple won’t be the first, but we certainly don’t want to be the last. So I kind of kept it open-ended. I think people heard something a little different than that.
The balance sheet flexibility we have has given us the ability to invest over $500 million across the blockchain ecosystem. That includes the XRP world, but also beyond that.”