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Ahmed Barakat
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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse struck a noticeably softer tone on the company’s IPO prospects at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, even as Ripple simultaneously runs a $750 million share buyback that pegs its private-market valuation at $50 billion.
The combination is telling: warmer language on going public, paired with a fresh vote of confidence in staying private, is closer to optionality than a policy shift.
- Buyback: Ripple is repurchasing up to $750 million in shares from investors and employees, with the tender open through the end of April.
- Valuation: The buyback values Ripple at $50 billion, a 25% jump from the $40 billion mark set in November 2025.
- CEO comments: Garlinghouse said Ripple has been happily private for a long time but is now more neutral on the IPO question, per Finbold’s account of his Wyoming remarks.
- No filing: Ripple has not submitted an S-1, announced a listing decision, or given any timetable.
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Why Ripple Keeps Buying Back Instead of Going Public with IPO
The current $750 million tender, first reported by Bloomberg, follows a $1 billion buyback attempt Ripple ran earlier at the $40 billion valuation that saw surprisingly low participation. Employees weren’t eager to sell shares while the crypto market was booming. That calculus has flipped: after a substantial market correction, shareholders now appear more willing to cash out.
The buyback also lands on top of a year of heavy capital deployment, including the acquisition of Hidden Road as Ripple expands well beyond its original payments footprint. In November 2025, the company raised $500 million from Citadel Securities at that $40 billion valuation. The same capital that gives Ripple room to fund growth without touching public markets.
Ripple itself now sits among the top ten most valuable private companies globally, alongside SpaceX and OpenAI, a bracket that makes an IPO a branding decision rather than a funding necessity.
Ripple President Monica Long has been the company’s most direct voice on the subject, and her position leaves little ambiguity about near-term intent.
“No plans for an IPO.”
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The CEO’s Shift From ‘No’ to ‘Neutral’
Garlinghouse’s Wyoming Blockchain Symposium remarks describe a company that has been happily private for years but is now more open-minded about a listing than it used to be. Ripple has not filed with the SEC, and the years of regulatory uncertainty that once kept public-listing plans firmly on the shelf have only recently cleared enough for the topic to be discussed casually again.
Ripple also remains one of the largest single holders of XRP, with roughly 34 billion tokens sitting in escrow. It’s a position worth tens of billions of dollars that would factor directly into any future public valuation model.
This overlap between Ripple corporate balance sheet and XRP’s circulating supply is exactly why any concrete IPO signal, rather than a rhetorical one, would move markets well beyond the company’s own cap table.
The tender offer runs through the end of April, and participation levels relative to the underwhelming $1 billion attempt at $40 billion will be the first real data point worth watching. A strong take-up alongside continued private funding rounds would support the case that Ripple stays private indefinitely; a stall, paired with any formal filing signal, would be the actual trigger for repricing IPO odds.
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