Last month, the stock for an iced tea company surged simply because they added the word “blockchain” to their name, and now another company is benefiting from cryptocurrency exuberance, except in this case the company may be sitting on a huge amount of hidden value.
Ripple, the company that owns 61% of XRP (a top 3 cryptocurrency) and controls how XRP is used, released a report listing who invested in their 2015 and 2016 rounds of Series A and Series B venture funding. Computer drive manufacturer Seagate Technology (Nasdaq: STX) was listed as owning a large enough percentage of Ripple to own about 4.33% of all XRP that exists. The current worth (on paper) of all XRP is $183 billion, meaning Seagate may be secretly sitting on an extra $7.8 billion. This would mean the company’s market cap is about 60% higher than currently believed. It’s not yet known if Seagate still holds their investment in Ripple, but Seeking Alpha reports “there hasn’t been a major liquidity event for the company.”
Not surprisingly, Seagate’s stock (which is usually around $42 of late) quickly jumped to a high of $48 on Monday, and it’s at $46 in after-hours trading as of this writing.
Ripple’s XRP is intended to simplify cross-border transfers of money. It’s represented by the silver coin in the bottom left corner of the banner picture, looking like it commemorates fidget spinners (R.I.P. Spring of 2017).
(Via Seeking Alpha and Inverse)