Ripple has offloaded 2,264,113 MGI shares i.e. 33% of its stake as per the latest filing with the US SEC. The blockchain startup hasn’t given any specific reason for this decision.
San Francisco-based blockchain startup Ripple has liquidated a significant part of its stock holding in payments and remittance giant MoneyGram International Inc (NASDAQ: MGI). Last Friday, December 4, Ripple filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and informed the regulator of selling 2,264,113 shares of MoneyGram (MGI).
Thus, with the stock sale, Ripple liquidated a total of $15,303,792.60 from the sales. With the latest stock liquidation, Ripple has cashed out nearly 33% stake from MoneyGram. The latest stock sale comes just one year after Ripple made a sizeable investment in MoneyGram in 2019. Even post the sale, Ripple continues to hold an 11% stake in the payments giant.
Ripple hasn’t disclosed the actual reason behind the stake sale nor has it mentioned what it intends to do with the proceeds of the sale. A Ripple spokesperson said:
“Ripple is a proud partner in MoneyGram’s digital growth transformation. This is purely a judicious financial decision to realize some gains on Ripple’s MGI [MoneyGram International] investment and is in no way a reflection of the current state of our partnership”.
MoneyGram (MGI) Stock Trading at 225% Premium
Ripple’s stake sale in MoneyGram (NASDAQ: MGI) comes at a time when the stock price has multiplied 3.5x in 2020. At press time, the MGI stock is trading at a price of $6.52 with a market cap of $472.8 million.
Last year, MoneyGram entered a deal with Ripple to use the latter xRapid technology. The xRapid tech by Ripple helps platforms to make and settle cross-border payments instantly by using the XRP cryptocurrency. The XRP cryptocurrency has been one of the top-performers for 2020.
Although XRP entered late to the party, it is still trading at 200% year-to-date returns. XRP has a $28 billion market contributing nearly 5% to the overall cryptocurrency market.
Coming back to the MoneyGram story, Ripple is not alone to liquidate its stake in the payments company. Earlier in August 2020, banking giant Goldman Sachs also sold 9% of its stake in Ripple. Goldman Sachs (GS) still controls a total of 18 million units of common stock worth $65 million.
MoneyGram (MGI) was notably knocked by the coronavirus pandemic and was placed in a position whereby the Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) was rumored to have initiated talks for a probable acquisition.
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