Alex Dovbnya

Ripple has severed ties with Tetragon by buying back its shares at a valuation of $15 billion

San Francisco-based blockchain firm Ripple has hit a $15 billion valuation after buying back shares from the investors that participated in the Series C round.

Excited to announce @Ripple bought back our Series C stock (December 2019) at a valuation of $15 billion! 1/4

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 26, 2022

In a recently posted Twitter thread, CEO Brad Garlinghouse wrote that the company is now in the strongest financial position ever, despite legal troubles in the US

He says the company has a $1 billion war chest. Last month, Garlinghouse said 2021 was the strongest year in the company’s history.

XRP is up 5% in the last 24 hours, CoinMarketCap Data show.

Solving the Tetragon Problem

As reported by U.Today, Ripple reached a valuation of approximately $9.8 billion in 2019 after bringing in $200 million in its fundraising round led by British investment firm Tetragon Financial Group.

After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission slammed the decacorn with a massive lawsuit in December 2020, Tetragon sought to get its investment back. In his lawsuit, the asset manager asked the judge to freeze Ripple’s cash until its Series C shares could be exchanged for cash.

The blockchain campaign emerged victorious from this legal battle by successfully arguing that the court has yet to determine whether XRP should be classified as an unregistered security.

Tetragon has now sold its shares back to Ripple, cutting ties with the company. Since the shares were repurchased at a valuation of $15 billion, the disgruntled wealth manager made a 50% return on his initial investment, despite losing the lawsuit.

Letting Tetragon go with a nice profit was perhaps seen as the best way to get rid of the enemy investor.