In a report, global investment bank Houlihan Lokey linked the valuation of blockchain technology firm Ripple directly to the XRP price.
Notably, the February 2024 report, titled “Digital Assets: How Can Valuation Differ From Traditional Assets?”, recently re-emerged in the XRP community after researcher SMQKE called attention to its findings.
Valuing Blockchain Firms Contrasts with Traditional Methods
The report discussed how valuing blockchain companies like Ripple contrasts with traditional methods and concluded that most of Ripple’s true valuation lies in its XRP holdings rather than corporate equity.
The bank highlighted that in blockchain projects, investors often hold both equity and token warrants since tokens tend to capture most of the project’s value. It then used Ripple as its primary example of how this structure works.
Houlihan Lokey Ties Ripple Valuation to XRP Price
For context, Ripple built its payment network on the blockchain technology of the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Since XRP serves as the gas token of the network, Houlihan Lokey suggested that this makes the token the primary source of economic value in Ripple’s ecosystem. At the time of the report, XRP traded around $0.60 per token.
Houlihan Lokey estimated that Ripple held about $1 billion in cash and securities and roughly 46 billion XRP tokens, assuming no liabilities. Notably, though they had no affiliations with Ripple, markets like Linqto and EquityZen traded Ripple’s shares, and the company had revealed a share buyback program in January 2024.
Using its valuation model, the report presented three different scenarios. In the first, secondary-market pricing valued Ripple at $4.5 billion, which implied an XRP price of $0.076 and an 84% equity discount.
The second, based on Ripple’s tender offer, valued the company at $11.3 billion, equal to an implied XRP price of $0.224 and a 60% discount. The third, which used XRP’s actual market price of $0.60, placed Ripple’s full theoretical value at $28.6 billion, considering its XRP holdings.
Houlihan Lokey noted that this wide range shows how much token prices can affect equity valuations. The firm also called attention to new accounting standards, specifically FASB ASU 2023-08, that require companies to report crypto assets at fair market value.
If Ripple applied that rule, it would need to record its XRP holdings at their market price, pushing its balance sheet closer to the $28.6 billion theoretical valuation rather than the $4.5 billion to $11.3 billion figures reflected in private equity trades.
Possible Ripple Valuation Today Using Same Methodology
Interestingly, using the same method today creates a much higher estimate. Specifically, Ripple currently holds about 40 billion XRP, with 5 billion spendable and 35 billion in escrow.
With XRP trading at $2.30, those tokens are worth about $92 billion. Adding $1 billion in cash and securities brings Ripple’s updated theoretical valuation to around $93 billion, more than three times the level Houlihan Lokey estimated in early 2024.
Meanwhile, at the Ripple Swell 2025 conference, the company revealed a $500 million investment that raised its private valuation to $40 billion.
Notably, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said earlier in the year that an IPO remains possible but is not a focus right now. However, Ripple President Monica Long has recently confirmed that the company has no plans for an IPO anytime soon and has set no timeline for it.
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