Ripple Rejects IPO Speculation as XRP ETFs Reshape Market While DeFi Expands Utility Through Flare and Hyperliquid

Private Capital, ETF Competition, and Cross-Chain DeFi Redefine XRP’s 2026 Trajectory

TL;DR

• Ripple ruled out near-term IPO plans after a $500 million secondary share sale valuing the company at about $40 billion, signaling confidence in private capital and long-term growth.
• WisdomTree withdrew its spot XRP ETF filing despite rising interest in XRP-based exchange-traded products, highlighting intensifying competition among issuers.
• Flare expanded XRP’s decentralized finance footprint by launching FXRP spot trading on Hyperliquid, enabling non-custodial, cross-chain exposure with institutional-grade infrastructure.

We’ve just launched the all-new COIN360 Perp DEX, built for traders who move fast!

Trade 130+ assets with up to 100× leverage, enjoy instant order placement and low-slippage swaps, and earn USDC passive yield while climbing the leaderboard. Your trades deserve more than speed — they deserve mastery.

Ripple’s leadership moved decisively to shut down speculation around a public listing after closing a $500 million secondary share sale in November 2025, a transaction that valued the blockchain payments company at roughly $40 billion and brought heavyweight investors such as Fortress and Citadel into its cap table. President Monica Long said the company has no immediate plans to pursue an IPO, emphasizing that Ripple’s balance sheet and access to private capital eliminate the need to tap public markets. She described 2025 as a strong operational year, noting that Ripple completed four acquisitions and is now focused on integrating those businesses into its core offerings. 

The company’s strategy centers on building regulated digital asset infrastructure for financial institutions, including stablecoin payments, compliant on- and off-ramps, and expansion into new regulatory frameworks, supported by more than 70 licenses obtained globally. Discussions around potential U.S. banking charters remain exploratory, reinforcing Ripple’s preference for regulatory depth over market theatrics, even as shifts in crypto price and broader sentiment continue to influence its flagship token.

Parallel to Ripple’s corporate positioning, the exchange-traded fund race around XRP took an unexpected turn when asset manager WisdomTree withdrew its S-1 registration for a spot XRP ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in early January 2026. The filing, initially submitted in December, was pulled despite growing momentum in the XRP ETF segment, where combined assets across competing products approached $1.4 billion. 

WisdomTree cited a decision not to proceed at this time, a move widely interpreted as a response to market saturation after rivals such as Canary Capital and Bitwise captured early share. Canary Capital’s spot XRP ETF alone recorded nearly $59 million in trading volume on its first day, underscoring how timing and distribution can shape outcomes in a crowded field. The withdrawal coincided with short-term weakness in XRP’s crypto price, illustrating how product-level developments can ripple through the coin market cap landscape and influence benchmarks tracked by the crypto price index.

While ETF dynamics played out in traditional markets, decentralized finance developments pushed XRP into new territory. Flare Network launched a spot XRP market on Hyperliquid using its FAssets protocol, enabling FXRP—an on-chain, one-to-one representation of XRP—to trade against USDC on a professional orderbook. The integration allows holders to bridge XRP from its native ledger to Flare without relinquishing custody, then deploy it in spot trading and advanced strategies such as hedging and cross-venue exposure. 

Flare’s leadership framed the launch as a step toward expanding XRP’s functional scope while preserving the XRP Ledger as the canonical settlement layer. FXRP, which debuted on mainnet in late September 2025 with an initial minting cap of five million tokens, attracted early liquidity through incentive programs and partnerships, drawing millions of dollars’ worth of XRP into DeFi vaults. The move reflects a broader shift in how XRP is used, positioning it not only as a payments asset but also as a building block in a multi-chain financial ecosystem that increasingly shapes market structure alongside movements in crypto price and institutional demand.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.