In the last month or so, Ripple received $200 million in Series C investors funding. Whilst it was unknown what they would use the money for, it is generally used for acquisitions or setting up for an IPO (Initial Public Offering).
So, Brad Garlinghouse strongly implied at an interview in Davos (an interview that Ripple paid for BTW, so they obviously want the Public to know) that Ripple would go public some time this year.
People on Twitter are losing their minds!
There is do much FUD (Fear, uncertainty & Doubt) out there, especially in tweeterland (Twitter) and I genuinely can't understand why.
Ripple deals in possibly the most conservative market there is - the Financial & Banking sector and they are dealing at the highest levels. In those circles, a Public Company is viewed as more highly regarded and more stable.
Secondly, Ripple is aggressively pursuing the lion's share of this market. To do this, they will need a massively bigger infrastructure than they have and even though they are a wealthy company (valued at $10 Billion) they will need more to maintain their market lead.
People, for whatever reason are thinking that the investment money will be redirected to purchasing Ripple's stock rather than XRP. In the retail investing sector, this might be true. Retail investors only have a limited amount for investment and they may move some or even all of it to Ripple Stock. However it will not affect the Institutional Investment sector which is a far bigger sector in terms of $s invested.
People are screaming that XRP will drop in value??? That one I personally cannot work out. In my view, if Ripple tried to remain a private company, they would be likely to have to sell their XRP holdings to fund infrastructure growth and that would induce a downward price pressure on XRP. Raising funds through an IPO allows them to keep their XRP holdings for when they are really needed - when mass adoption takes place.
When a company announces they are going Public, they want to boost their balance sheet assets, not reduce them.
I'd like to introduce you to one of my favourite technical analysis people, The Blockchain Backer. If you don't follow this guy on YouTube and Twitter, you should. Here is his analysis:
Youtube: The Blockchain Backer Twitter: @BcBacker
All in all, I see this IPO as being a major positive for XRP in the long term. Short term, if the retail investors back off and price falls, that's great because that gives us an opportunity to fill our bags a little more. I can assure you, that's what I'll be doing.
