Ripple is completing a share buyback with a value of $750 million. The headline reflects this fact. The true nature of the issue, however, is that the company is using internal funds to increase its stated value to $50 billion, tighten the cap table and give early investors an exit before they can exit via an IPO. This does not indicate a bullish outlook for XRP or a change in the market. It is a method of corporate housekeeping that has some implications. Bloomberg originally reported Ripple's internal share buyback offer for both retail and employee investors is open through April. Approximately four months earlier, Ripple had received<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/03/11/ripple-s-share-buyback-program-values-the-firm-at-usd50-billion-bloomberg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>$500 million at a $40 billion valuation from Citadel Securities, Fortress Investment Group, Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard and Marshall Wace. If Ripple can successfully complete this buyback, it would result in a $50 billion valuation, 25 percent higher than the previous valuations. Rising valuations were the outcome of the previous cycle that came to a close in November 2020. Since the end of that cycle, there has been an extremely large decline in the market. Currently, since that peak in October of 2020, the price of Bitcoin is down more than 40 percent; at that same time, the price of XRP is down more than 50 percent. While the market has completely shifted to a sellers market (downward movement), Ripple's current internal valuations do not reflect the current price values. This illustrates how private company valuations work; until the valuation is tested in public, the valuation will not be expected to reflect the market reality. Therefore, neither of Ripple's internal valuations or the share buyback will be tested in public; that is how the process was created.<h2>The September Failure Didn't Go Away</h2>In September, Ripple's buyback attempt was not successful, leaving many wondering why. Of the $40 billion valuation Ripple has, it was looking to purchase approximately $1 billion worth of XRP but at this moment there are very few people that want to sell their XRP to Ripple. Many people that work for Ripple were looking to sell their XRP as well but were unsuccessful. This means that the first round of buybacks did not show a lack of interest but rather a drawdown of employee XRP being sold to Ripple. When Ripple made their first offer of $50 billion to the market for those who have at least some belief in Ripple's future and the value it can achieve over the long term. Employees who want to maintain ownership of their XRP have expressed this already and they are now ready to sell back to Ripple at a price they feel is acceptable. The individual sellers who were close to selling their XRP previously will now be targeted in this new legal buyback. This is Ripple's fourth buyback, the last three being: 1)<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/ripple-launches-dollar750m-buyback-at-dollar50b-valuation-bloomberg-reports" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>$11.3 billion in January 2024, 2) $700 million in a follow-on offering after the January offering (this was the second offering), and 3) $1 billion attempt (this was an unsuccessful offering). Each of these rounds of buybacks, Ripple's valuation has increased and has reported. Ripple has repositioned the buyback structure to be framed as a pre-IPO and the other rounds to be structured as liquidity events for the XRP sale. Ripple has greatly advanced efforts to deliver on these moving targets based on their repositioning process.<h2>What Four Billion Dollars of Acquisitions Actually Buys</h2>Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple's CEO, has consistently made it clear that there are no plans to take the company public anytime soon. Circle filed for an IPO and Gemini has become well-established in the market. Ripple, on the other hand, is able to create liquidity for investors internally while holding onto a very large number of shares. This approach would seem to be a logical solution instead of a compromise; however, we have to consider how this fits into the overall context of Ripple's recent acquisitions. Ripple has recently made several significant acquisitions that total over $200 million. These include establishing Rail, a stablecoin custodial business; GTreasury, a treasury management platform; and<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250408091712/en/Ripple-Agrees-to-Acquire-Prime-Broker-Hidden-Road-for-$1.25B-in-One-of-the-Largest-Deals-in-the-Digital-Assets-Space" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>Hidden Road, a prime brokerage. In total, over $4 billion has been invested into Ripple in various capacities. This clearly is not a company that is running "lean" by any stretch of the imagination. The acquisition that stands out the most is Hidden Road. They are truly an excellent brokerage, but they are not a blockchain company. They do not have a token project that they are working with. Their primary business model revolves around managing all the elements of institutional accounts in terms of funding, clearing and holding (aka custody). This represents a very targeted investment in the future volume of regulated cryptocurrency transactions from all institutions; and does not include volume from the end-users' desks, who are required to have physical counterparty infrastructures or rely on speculative activities to conduct their transactions, as well as those executing retail transactions. An additional question is raised because nobody seems to be addressing the issue: Are the existing reserves that Ripple is using to fund its buybacks related to cumulative fundraising efforts; or are they derived from their operating revenues?<h2>The Valuation Gap Nobody Wants to Talk About</h2>On the day that the buyback was announced, Forge Global's private shares decreased by about 9%. The official Ripple number went up. Secondary market activity decreased, too. The situations all took place at the same time, and that was never acknowledged when covering each event. There's no need to reconcile private valuations. This isn't a bug; it's a feature. Ripple sets its own number. Forge is indicative of real willing buyers and sellers doing their business publicly. It's not uncommon for this divergence in value at two different valuations (i.e., Ripple versus Forge) to exist in later stage private marketplaces. However, the timing and magnitude of differences between those two values may be uncommon. According to RLUSD,<a href="https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2026/03/05/ripple-pushes-stablecoin-payments-as-rlusd-supply-hits-1-5b/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>$1.5 billion of volume was cleared. There have been<a href="https://u.today/ripple-exec-shares-733-rlusd-growth-amid-rising-global-demand" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>$100+ billion worth of payments processed through its payment network. Both of those numbers are actual and precise. Ripple has made no estimates on either a growth rate or competitive strategy; thus, neither number would fit neatly into the $50 billion market. The Swift payment network is obviously here to stay, while JPMorgan is now keeping up through their own blockchain. Ripple has not acquired the institutional payment market it desires.<h2>The XRP Disconnect</h2>The buyback did not change the total number of circulating XRP. There is no price determination based directly or indirectly on buying XRP through Ripple equity. Holders of both XRP and Ripple may actually choose to sell Ripple shares instead of liquidating their XRPs in that event. Because of this, there will be decreased selling pressure on the open market. This can be considered an actual pathway, not a promise. Additionally, this week Ripple was pulled into the<a href="https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/03/12/ripple-eyes-50b-valuation-with-new-750m-share-buyback/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>Mastercard Crypto Partner Program, and BC Payments Australia Pty Ltd acquired to obtain an Australian Financial Services License. Both events occurred in relation to the buyback. Timing isn't too subtle. XRP was up slightly on March 11, 2026, but as it is within the normal volatility range; it was not an outcome of the buyback.<h2>What This Actually Does</h2>Decreases the number of external shareholders. Expands the private runway. Resets the valuation anchor for all upcoming transactions, including license agreements, acquisitions, and finally IPOs that Garlinghouse consistently rejects. The most intriguing variable is the employees who declined to sell for $40 billion. They are more knowledgeable than the press release. The only thing that really counts in this situation is whether they sell at $50 billion this time, in a worse macro environment with<a href="https://www.newsbtc.com/breaking-news-ticker/ripple-launches-750-million-share-buyback-boosting-valuation-to-50-billion/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>XRP below $1.40. The rest is all framing.

Ripple's $750M share buyback aims to tighten ownership, lift valuation to $50B, and give early investors liquidity not to impact XRP’s market or signal bullish trends.

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