Ripple has raised US$500 million in a new funding round led by Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities, valuing the company at US$40 billion. The investment follows Ripple’s US$1 billion tender offer earlier this year at the same valuation, marking a continuation of investor confidence in the firm’s long-term outlook.
Ripple said the funds will strengthen its partnerships with financial institutions and expand its services across custody, stablecoin issuance and crypto treasury management. The company’s RLUSD stablecoin has gained traction for corporate payments amid clearer US regulations under the GENIUS Act. The funding also positions Ripple to deepen its role in global payments as more firms integrate stablecoins into settlement networks.
The Canadian government announced as part of its 2025 budget that it plans to introduce legislation regulating fiat-backed stablecoins. The legislation aims to provide a secure, stable framework encouraging the development of Canadian-dollar pegged stablecoins, modernizing payment systems and fostering digital innovation.
The new rules will require stablecoin issuers to maintain sufficient asset reserves to back their digital currencies, safeguard consumer interests and comply with national security standards to protect personal data.
The Bank of Canada will receive C$10 million over two years starting in the 2026 to 2027 period to oversee the new framework, with ongoing costs expected to be covered by stablecoin issuers.
Northern Data Group, Europe’s largest Bitcoin-mining company, is divesting its mining arm, Peak Mining, in a deal worth up to US$200 million as it pivots entirely toward artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. The transaction includes US$50 million in upfront cash and up to US$150 million in performance-based payments tied to future profits.
The move follows the Bitcoin halving this past April, which cut mining revenues in half and accelerated the firm’s strategic shift. The company plans to repurpose its mining facilities in Texas for high-performance AI workloads, which can yield up to 10 times more revenue per megawatt than Bitcoin mining.
The company already owns over 220,000 GPUs through prior acquisitions.
The Balancer DeFi protocol suffered a major exploit on Tuesday (November 3), losing about US$128 million in assets from its V2 Composable Stable Pools due to a precision rounding error and access control flaws in its smart contracts.
According to a report released after the attack, the infiltrator manipulated swap calculations and batch swaps to drain liquidity across multiple blockchains, including Ether, Polygon, Arbitrum and others.
Balancer promptly paused affected pools, confirmed no impact on V3 or other versions, and is collaborating with forensic and security experts to trace and recover funds. So far, US$19.3 million worth of StakeWise osETH has been recovered. Balancer has offered a white hat bounty for full asset return within 48 hours and continues investigating.
In an email to the Investing News Network, Bitget COO Vugar Usi Zade said incidents that expose growing security challenges in DeFi are damaging to trust, but also drive innovation toward stronger security frameworks that combine centralized protections with decentralized access.
Read more on Investing News Network
