Linqto, a company that trades private equity for crypto companies, before public listing, said that it has sold $50 million of stocks for Ripple Labs. This happened despite Ripple’s ongoing case with the US SEC.
Despite Ripple’s ongoing case with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), XRP supporters and investors are standing for the firm. Linqto, a firm that buys equity in companies before they hit the equity markets, shared some interesting insights.
Linqto said that accredited investors are rushing to buy pre-IPO equity in crypto-based firms. Out of all the unlisted shares of companies in the crypto space, Ripple Labs has been the choice for investors. Speaking to CoinDesk, Nick Burrafato, director of digital asset sales at Linqto said:
“We don’t act like a broker, but rather we put our money upfront and buy pre-IPO tech company shares from early founders, investors and employees that need to liquidate shares for whatever reason – that might be to buy a house or send a kid to college. We also retain ownership of a percentage of each and every investment we make until the company exits”.
Linqto launched just two years ago and it has sold more than $50 million worth of private equity in Ripple Labs. Burrafato said that investors are buying despite the company’s legal battle with the US SEC. He further added:
“We were selling Ripple shares long before the SEC case. Many of our members hold digital assets and they were emboldened by this case with the SEC, and decided they wanted to have a piece of Ripple equity as well as XRP.”
Ripple’s Plans to Go Public
Blockchain startup Ripple has been willing to go public and has told its intentions beforehand. Back in January 2020, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that an initial public offering (IPO) would be a natural evolution for the company.
However, later that year, the SEC slapped a lawsuit in December 2020, accusing Ripple of conducting unregistered securities sales for its XRP token back during the ICO of 2013. Since then, the two parties have been fighting the legal battle in court. Brad Garlinghouse said that the company would wait until the issue has been resolved.
Linqto is holding an agreement with the Uphold trading platform. As part of this agreement, it will allow users to pay for their private equity using digital assets, including XRP. Speaking about this, Uphold Chief Revenue Officer Robin O’Connell said that “Uphold has lots of users who are part of the XRP Army, if you will, so there’s an affinity there”.
There’s been a strong demand for private equity in crypto companies recently. This was clearly visible ahead of Coinbase’s public listing last year. Before the public listing, Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) stock changed hands at $32 a share just nine months before listing at $350 apiece on Nasdaq.
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