Nasdaq-listed solar power firm VivoPower International has seen its shares rise by 32% after the company announced the purchase of $100M worth of Ripple Labs shares. The jump took the company’s shares to $5.10 on Friday, coming after the firm expanded its XRP-focused digital asset treasury strategy.
In the press release made by the company, the decision to purchase the shares came after two months of due diligence. The first is expected to acquire shares directly from existing shareholders, pending approval from the executive management of Ripple. “Our portfolio construction strategy is to buy a combination of Ripple shares and XRP tokens. This will allow us to optimize for yield maximization while also minimizing the weighted average cost of XRP acquired,” Kevin Chin, executive chairman and CEO of VivoPower, said.
VivoPower says it also has plans to acquire XRP
According to the statement, VivoPower will also acquire XRP tokens directly, becoming the first publicly listed US firm to provide investors with exposure to both Ripple equity and XRP. To manage the strategy, Vivopower is expected to work with BitGo for custody and Nasdaq Private Market, Ripple’s handpicked partner for private share transactions. VivoPower’s Ripple holding will be reviewed by an independent auditor every quarter.
In its statement, VivoPower argues that the combined strategy will reduce the average acquisition cost per XRP to about $0.47, representing a discount of about 86% to current market prices. This is based solely on Ripple’s XRP holdings and excludes the value of its other business lines. According to the company, every time it purchases $10 million worth of Ripple shares, it could add about $5.15 per share in value for VivoPower shareholders, though it still depends on market volatility.
Ripple, which created 100 billion XRP at inception, has burned about 14 million tokens to date, holding 41 billion in escrow. Outside XRP, the company also operates the RLUSD stablecoin, digital asset prime broker Hidden Road, custodians MetaCo and Standard Custody & Trust, and stablecoin payment platform Rail. Ripple has been enjoying success in the market over the last few weeks, with so many establishments adopting its tokens.
South Korean crypto custodian BDACS launched a regulated custody service for XRP last Tuesday. The development comes after the firm announced a Ripple partnership in February. As part of the partnership, BDACS will offer institutional custody support for XRP and its dollar-backed stablecoins, RLUSD. To achieve this, it will tap Ripple Custody, an enterprise-grade solution, to provide institutions with secure storage and management capabilities for XRP.
Also, Japan-based credit card firm A Plus has partnered with SBI VC Trade to allow customers to convert their reward points into XRP, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the asset is currently trading around $3.29, rising slightly by 0.14% in the past 24 hours.
On the regulatory front, the company also ended its five-year legal tussle with the SEC. Both parties concluded their legal dispute after filing a Joint Stipulation of Dismissal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, ending all appeals in the case (Case No. 24-2648(L) and 24-2705(XAP)). The dismissal brings an end to the protracted lawsuit, which was initiated in December 2020 when the SEC accused Ripple of breaching securities law by selling XRP, which the agency called “unregistered securities.”
