In one of the largest crypto funding rounds of 2025, Ripple has raised $500 million at a $40 billion valuation in a strategic investment round led by Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities. The round saw participation from major crypto-native investors including Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital, Brevan Howard, and Marshall Wace.
The fundraise comes on the heels of Ripple’s recent $1 billion tender offer at the same valuation and follows $4 billion in strategic acquisitions, including Hidden Road, GTreasury, and Palisade. This brings Ripple’s total capital activity to $5.5 billion in recent months.
“We started in 2012 with one use case — payments — and have expanded that success into custody, stablecoins, prime brokerage, and corporate treasury, leveraging digital assets like XRP,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a statement.
In perhaps the most significant structural shift in crypto investing, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan announced that institutional portfolio allocations to Bitcoin are jumping from the traditional 1% to a new 5% baseline.
Hougan described this shift as Bitcoin’s “IPO moment” — referencing when a company goes public and institutional investors move from exploratory positions to full strategic allocations. “The days of 1% allocations are over,” Hougan stated. “Institutions are increasingly setting 5% as the new baseline.”
If institutional investors collectively move to 5% allocations, the implications are staggering. Global pension assets alone (~$50 trillion) could represent $2.5 trillion in potential Bitcoin allocation. Even partial adoption could represent $3+ trillion in new demand against Bitcoin’s ~$2 trillion market cap.
Monad To Launch Layer-1 Blockchain in November
Monad will launch its Layer 1 blockchain and native MON token on November 24 at 9:00 AM ET, a team member disclosed to The Block. The associated airdrop will reward thousands of early community members and approximately 225,000 verified users across major protocols including Aave, Uniswap, and Pump.fun.
Monad promises Solana-level speed with Ethereum compatibility through custom parallel execution technology. The network is designed to run thousands of transactions simultaneously with sub-second finality while maintaining full EVM compatibility.
At launch, Monad will integrate with major ecosystem players including Uniswap, Magic Eden, OpenSea, with wallet support from MetaMask, Phantom, and Rabby.
