While visiting the World Economic Forum (WEF) event in Davos, Ripple Labs CEO, Brad Garlinghouse discussed the firm’s growth opportunities and despite the crypto economy’s downturn, Garlinghouse spoke about future mergers and acquisitions.
‘I Think We’re More Likely to Be the Buyer,’ Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse Said During an Interview in Davos
Just recently, during the WEF conference in Davos, Ripple Labs executive Brad Garlinghouse told CNBC in an interview that Ripple Labs has “a very strong balance sheet.” Garlinghouse spoke about Ripple Labs possibly participating in merger and acquisition (M&A) deals and Ripple Labs will be the buyer. “We’re now at a stage of growth where I think we’re more likely to be the buyer versus the … seller,” Garlinghouse told the CNBC author Arjun Kharpal. Garlinghouse further noted that he expects to see an increase in M&A in the blockchain industry.
“I think there’ll be an uptick in M&A in the blockchain and crypto space,” Garlinghouse explained during his interview. “We haven’t seen that yet. But I think that’s likely in the future. And I certainly think as that unfolds, we would consider things like that.”
In the last quarter of 2021, there were a few acquisitions of crypto companies. Coinbase, for instance, acquired Fairx Exchange on January 20, 2022. Opensea also acquired Dharma Labs the following month. Consensys, an electronic currency software company, announced that it had acquired the Mycrypto wallet in February. Public, fractional investor company, announced in March the acquisition of Otis (digital collectibles) and NFT token (NFT), technology startup Otis.
Bolt (payments, checkout, and shopper network) acquired Wyre in April for $1.5 billion. Huobi Global also announced that it had acquired Bitex, a Latin American cryptocurrency exchange, towards the end of May. The Ripple Labs CEO’s statements in Davos also follow the billionaire and FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried talking about spending billions on M&A deals. Garlinghouse explained in Davos that “there’s a lot of room for growth in crypto, and we’re looking at a lot of different niches for it.”
The crypto asset xrp is currently the sixth largest market capitalization of the more than 13400 available crypto assets. To date, however, the XRP price has fallen 59.2% year-to–date against the U.S. dollars and 34% in the past 30 day. XRP’s all-time high (ATH), however, was not reached seven months ago like many other digital assets. It also didn’t reach its peak in the past 7 months. XRP’s last recorded ATH was over four years ago on January 7, 2018, following the 2017 crypto bull run. XRP is down more than 88% since that ATH and its market valuation represents 1.49% of the entire crypto economy’s $1.28 trillion in value.
Do you agree with Garlinghouse’s Davos comments about possible mergers and acquisitions in the future? Comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.
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