Global Investment Bank Links Ripple’s Value Directly to XRP Price

A February 2024 report from global investment bank Houlihan Lokey has resurfaced in the XRP community, reigniting discussion about the close relationship between Ripple’s corporate valuation and the market price of XRP.

The report, titled “Digital Assets: How Can Valuation Differ From Traditional Assets?”, concluded that most of Ripple’s economic worth stems from its XRP holdings rather than its private-equity value.

How Blockchain Valuations Differ from Conventional Models

Houlihan Lokey’s analysis outlined how assessing blockchain companies diverges from traditional valuation methods. In conventional finance, equity ownership and cash flow typically determine worth.

However, for firms built around blockchain networks, the report argued that native tokens frequently represent the primary store of value and the mechanism through which economic activity occurs.

The firm observed that after the 2022 downturn, marked by exchange collapses and fraud scandals, many investors retreated from digital assets.

Yet, the rebound in market confidence following Ripple’s legal win against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), renewed institutional participation, and the introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs signaled a shift back toward crypto exposure.

Houlihan Lokey emphasized that, in blockchain ventures, investors often hold both equity and token positions because most of a project’s future returns are captured by its token rather than its shares. Ripple was used as a central example of this dynamic.

XRP Holdings Influence Ripple’s Valuation

The report highlighted that Ripple’s payments network is built on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), where XRP acts as the native utility token. This link, the bank noted, ties Ripple’s financial value directly to XRP’s market price.

At the time of the study, XRP traded around $0.60. Houlihan Lokey estimated that Ripple controlled roughly 46 billion XRP and maintained about $1 billion in cash and securities, assuming no liabilities. Using this data, the report modeled three valuation scenarios:

Secondary-market pricing valued Ripple at $4.5 billion, implying an XRP price of $0.076 and an 84 percent discount to the underlying token value. Tender-offer pricing placed Ripple’s valuation at $11.3 billion, implying $0.224 per XRP and a 60 percent discount.

Market-price alignment, using XRP’s actual price of $0.60, produced a theoretical valuation of $28.6 billion. The wide gap between these figures, the bank noted, illustrates how token fluctuations can meaningfully alter a blockchain firm’s estimated worth.

Effect of Accounting Standards on Ripple’s Value

Houlihan Lokey referenced the FASB ASU 2023-08 accounting rule, which requires digital assets to be reported at fair market value. If Ripple applied this standard, its XRP holdings would appear on the balance sheet at market prices rather than at cost.

Under that approach, the company’s reported valuation would align closer to the upper-end figure of $28.6 billion.

Applying the same methodology today yields significantly larger numbers. Ripple currently holds about 40 billion XRP, including 5 billion readily accessible tokens and 35 billion locked in escrow.

With XRP recently trading around $2.44, those tokens alone represent approximately $92 billion in value. Adding the company’s $1 billion in cash and securities brings the theoretical valuation to roughly $93 billion, more than triple the estimate from early 2024.

At the Ripple Swell 2025 conference, the company announced a $500 million capital raise that lifted its private-market valuation to about $40 billion.

Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse stated earlier in the year that a public listing remains a possibility, although not an immediate goal. Ripple President Monica Long later confirmed there is no timeline for an initial public offering (IPO).

Houlihan Lokey’s findings highlight that Ripple’s corporate worth cannot be separated from XRP’s price. As long as the company’s core utility and assets are tied to the XRPL ecosystem, changes in XRP’s market value will continue to exert a major influence on Ripple’s perceived and reported valuation.