Digital asset and infrastructure company Ripple announced on November 5 the completion of a $5 billion strategic funding round, achieving a post-money valuation of $40 billion. This represents the company’s largest external financing round since its 2019 Series C funding ($200 million at $10 billion valuation), reflecting a fourfold increase in valuation over six years. The funding round was jointly led by Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities, with participation from institutions including Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard, and Marshall Wace. This transaction ranks as the third-largest single financing deal in the 2025 cryptocurrency primary market, following Polymarket’s $20 billion strategic financing in October and Binance’s $20 billion minority equity transaction in March. Ripple indicated the capital will be primarily allocated to ongoing mergers and acquisitions, global expansion of RLUSD, and compliance infrastructure development. Throughout this year, Ripple has initiated a strategic investment plan exceeding $40 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). Ripple, established by Ripple Labs, operates a distributed ledger-based global cross-border payment network that enables secure, instant, and nearly cost-free financial transactions worldwide. The company’s business comprises RippleNet (cross-border payment network), RLUSD (compliant stablecoin), XRPL (enterprise-grade public blockchain), and institutional acquisition ecosystem. According to RootData, XRP currently trades at $2.33, with a 24-hour increase of 7.2% and a monthly decline of 20%. XRP ranks fourth globally in market capitalization at $139.8 billion, with a circulating supply of 60.1 billion tokens. The $40 billion valuation significantly exceeds most comparable projects. Public information indicates that in the stablecoin sector, Circle’s NYSE listing values it at approximately $25 billion, while Paxos is valued around $2.4 billion. In public blockchain infrastructure, Polygon’s valuation stands at approximately $7 billion, with Sui and Aptos valued at about $6 billion and $4.5 billion respectively. Among payment networks, Stellar’s market capitalization is approximately $9 billion. Ripple’s elevated valuation partly stems from growth potential in XRPL and RLUSD, but also reflects liquidity premiums associated with its private status. Ripple President Monica Long confirmed the company currently has no IPO plans or timeline, potentially extending investor exit path uncertainty. In business developments, Ripple’s compliant stablecoin RLUSD reached a significant milestone on November 6, with total circulation surpassing $1 billion for the first time. Within 330 days of launch, the stablecoin has become the 11th largest USD stablecoin globally according to DefiLlama, with current circulation of $1.022 billion—$819 million on Ethereum and $203 million natively on XRP Ledger. President Monica Long noted that Ripple has processed nearly $100 billion in payment volume, with RLUSD serving as the “primary stablecoin” for payment flows. However, RLUSD maintains a relatively small market share in the stablecoin sector dominated by USDT ($183 billion) and USDC ($76 billion), facing ongoing liquidity competition risks. Regarding XRPL public blockchain, Ripple’s technological core serves over 500 global financial institutions with annual transaction volume approaching $95 billion. Recent XRPL upgrades introduced EVM-compatible sidechains and collaboration with Polygon CDK, enhancing smart contract functionality. However, XRPL’s DeFi ecosystem remains underdeveloped, with DefiLlama data showing XRPL DeFi TVL at only $79.59 million (ranked 49th), significantly trailing leading public blockchains like Solana ($10.1 billion) and Ethereum ($74.7 billion). In a significant partnership development, Mastercard announced collaboration with Gemini and Ripple to explore using RLUSD stablecoin on XRPL for settling fiat card transactions. Gemini’s XRP credit card backend settlement will fully migrate to XRP Ledger, utilizing RLUSD for 3-second final settlement. Mastercard stated this partnership represents one of the first cases where regulated US banks use public blockchain and regulated stablecoins to settle traditional card transactions, potentially reducing merchant costs. These developments create a positive feedback loop: financing provides backing for RLUSD growth, stablecoin scale enhances credit card real-time settlement liquidity, and Mastercard collaboration validates compliant blockchain alternatives to traditional systems. This potentially marks Ripple’s transition from “blockchain-based SWIFT” concept toward revenue-driven global settlement infrastructure. Ripple currently faces two critical regulatory developments. First, regarding XRP spot ETF approvals, seven institutions including Grayscale, Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, Canary Capital, 21Shares, and CoinShares submitted updated S-1 filings on November 4, removing previous indefinite postponement clauses and adopting automatic effectiveness mechanisms similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. The earliest batches are expected to take effect between November 13-15, with Polymarket prediction markets indicating 99% approval probability within 2025. Notably, REX-Osprey XRP ETF (ticker XRPR) launched on September 18, achieving first-day trading volume of $37.7 million—the highest debut volume record this year. Subsequent ETF approvals could attract additional compliant capital, providing deeper liquidity pools for XRP and potentially mitigating extreme volatility long-term. Second, regarding US banking license applications, Ripple submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on July 2, 2025, to establish Ripple National Trust Bank, currently undergoing a 120-day statutory review period with preliminary results expected by November 2, 2026. According to OCC website status, Circle’s application from June 30 has exceeded the 120-day review period without approval, while Paxos (August 12) and Coinbase (October 3) applications remain under review. Ripple ranks among earlier applicants for federal trust charters. If approved, RLUSD reserves could be deposited directly with Federal Reserve master accounts, enabling 24/7 real-time minting and redemption. Ripple would become the second crypto-native enterprise holding a federal trust charter after Anchorage Digital, creating dual regulatory benefits alongside XRP ETF that could enhance institutional adoption confidence and capital inflow scale. Despite recent positive developments, Ripple faces challenges across its business segments: stablecoin competition remains intense, XRPL trails in public blockchain competitiveness, and cross-border payment business still primarily relies on traditional systems. Amid multifaceted competitive pressures and regulatory uncertainty, whether compliance breakthroughs or Mastercard partnership can sustain the $40 billion valuation ultimately depends on performance metrics and market validation.