Ripple president Monica Long says the company’s latest $500 million equity raise is being put to work on integrating a run of acquisitions and expanding Ripple’s push into regulated stablecoin infrastructure.In an interview with Bloomberg Crypto on Jan. 6, Long addressed investor questions around the fundraising terms, Ripple’s plans for RLUSD under a new US regulatory regime, and whether the company is moving any closer to an IPO.
What Ripple Is Really Doing With Its $500M War Chest
The raise, done in the fourth quarter at a reported $40 billion valuation, brought in major names including Citadel and Fortress, alongside a number of crypto native funds. The deal reportedly allows investors to sell shares back to Ripple at a guaranteed price and return, plus preferential treatment in major events such as a sale or bankruptcy.
Long did not dwell on the specific mechanics, but framed the structure as favorable for Ripple and positioned the investor mix as strategic for where the company wants to go next.
“So the overall structure for the fundraiser is very, very positive, very favorable for Ripple,” Long said. “We were really pleased to welcome Fortress and Citadel onto our cap table in addition to a number of other crypto native premier funds. And what they really saw was that our business is working, you know, our strategy of creating digital asset infrastructure for businesses and financial institutions alongside the inflection point that stable coin payments hit last year was something that they wanted to be a part of.”
Long added that as Ripple looks “more toward applying these technologies to the world of capital markets,” investors like Citadel and Fortress can be “great strategic partners on that front.”
Pressed on whether the investor protections were necessary to secure the valuation and close the deal, Long offered limited additional detail, saying only that “to my knowledge, they were excited to be a part of to be investors in Ripple,” and that Ripple was “very pleased with how the terms of the deal panned out.”
Long said the money is supporting a company that is still in build-and-integrate mode after an acquisitive year. “You know, 2025 was a big year for Ripple for both our organic growth and then also inorganic,” she said, adding Ripple “had acquired four companies last year with the fundraise as well,” and is now focused on “integrating those businesses [Hidden Road, Rail, GTreasury and Palisade] and continuing to grow.”
Long also described Ripple’s broader effort to diversify value creation beyond the company’s XRP holdings by building what she called the “connective tissue” needed to make tokenized assets usable for institutions, custody, compliant on- and off-ramps, and regulatory permissions. She said Ripple has taken a “compliance first” approach and has acquired “70 plus licenses around the world” to support customer flows.
Long also outlined how recent acquisitions fit Ripple’s product roadmap. She pointed to “adding components like MPC custody through Palisade,” strengthening the stablecoin offering “with rail,” and buying complementary businesses that can consume Ripple’s infrastructure, citing GTreasury, which she said serves “a thousand corporates,” and Ripple Prime, which she said serves “hundreds of hedge funds,” as Ripple pushes into use cases like collateral mobility.
Ripple President Monica Long on moving beyond #XRP, acquisitions & the future of blockchain in tradfi
The Massive Nov fundraise (w/ Citadel & Fortress), plans, acquisitions ahead, & embracing regulation to legitimize the space pic.twitter.com/1o3AnvISmY
— 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸XRP (@BankXRP) January 6, 2026
What Ripple Is Not Doing With The Raise
Despite adding new large investors, Long reiterated Ripple’s stance on staying private. She said the company still has “no plan, no timeline for an IPO,” arguing Ripple can fund growth and acquisitions with its existing balance sheet strength and private-market interest rather than pursuing public-market liquidity.
Asked whether Ripple might buy a centralized exchange, Long called exchanges “definitely key partners” but said Ripple does not plan an acquisition in that category, while noting the rise of decentralized exchanges and a broader trend of “verticalization” among major crypto firms.
At press time, XRP traded at $2.25.
Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
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