Crypto Biz: Ripple takes the high road, Jan. 20-26

cointelegraph.com:

Blockchain payments company Ripple made it abundantly clear this week that it's not letting its feud with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hold back its business plans. On Wednesday, the company announced it had repurchased all Series C shares that it issued to private investors back in December 2019 — even though a court ruling in 2021 said it didn't have to.

This week's Crypto Biz explores Ripple's share repurchase and provides an overview of the biggest funding stories of the week. We also weigh a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal by Valkyrie that seeks to provide exposure to the Bitcoin (BTC) mining arena. For a more fulsome discussion of this week's business news, register for the Crypto Biz newsletter below. 

More than two years after raising $200 million in a Series C funding round, Ripple announced this week that it had repurchased all of the outstanding shares that were issued in the deal. Ripple said the share repurchase reflected the company's "extremely strong position in the market" and "strong balance sheet." The buyback also netted the company a whopping $15 billion valuation — all while it continued to fight a $1.38 billion lawsuit filed by the SEC. As Cointelegraph previously reported, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expects the lawsuit to be resolved sometime in 2022.

RippleNet is much more than cross-border payments – it’s bringing crypto-native services such as liquidity to enterprises. Today, the network has a volume run rate >$10B. Huge props to the team for continuously upping their game & leaning into new capabilities every year. 3/4

In the absence of a full-fledged Bitcoin spot ETF, investors may be looking for alternative ways to gain exposure to the flagship digital