Ripple vets and crypto heavyweights back $1 billion Evernorth SPAC to build largest public XRP treasury

Some of the crypto industry's biggest financial players have led a $1 billion raise to create the largest public digital asset treasury made up of XRP.

Newly formed Evernorth Holdings Inc. will merge with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Armada Acquisition Corp II. Upon closing of the transaction expected next quarter, the combined company will operate under the Evernorth name and is expected to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol XRPN. The firm seeks to grow XRP per share over time by participating in institutional lending, liquidity provisioning, and DeFi yield opportunities, according to the release.

"Evernorth is built to provide investors more than just exposure to XRP's price," said Evernorth CEO Asheesh Birla. "As we capitalize on existing TradFi yield generation strategies and deploy into DeFi yield opportunities, we also contribute to the growth and maturity of that ecosystem. This approach is designed to generate returns for shareholders while supporting XRP's utility and adoption."

The transaction is expected to raise over $1 billion in gross proceeds, including $200 million from SBI and additional investments from Ripple and Rippleworks, Pantera Capital, Kraken, and GSR, with participation from Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, among others. Net proceeds will primarily fund open-market purchases of XRP, with a portion allocated to working capital, general corporate purposes, and transaction expenses.

Larsen said Monday he was "proud to invest" 50 million XRP into the new firm, which would be worth about $125 million at current prices.

XRP is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of nearly $150 billion and a fully diluted valuation of $246 billion. The XRP token traded up 2.5% to $2.47 over the past 24 hours, according to The Block's price data. While corporate DATs have become all the rage in 2025, led in large part by BTC, ETH, and SOL, the XRP token is a much smaller player in the treasury game.

Monday's news comes less than a week after Bloomberg reported Ripple Labs was leading an effort to raise $1 billion for a new XRP treasury. That same day, Ripple said it acquired GTreasury for $1 billion in an effort to open up the multi-trillion-dollar corporate treasury market.

Evernorth plans to deploy resources toward advancing the XRP ecosystem more broadly. This includes operating XRP validators, leveraging Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin as an on-ramp into XRP-based decentralized finance, and providing liquidity and participating in projects that expand XRP's real-world utility across markets.

"XRP has clear regulatory standing in the US, and it’s no surprise that companies like @evernorthxrp are looking to focus on XRP. Congrats @ashgoblue and the amazing team he has assembled," Ripple's chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty said on X.

Birla previously served as a senior executive at Ripple, where he was instrumental in building and scaling the company's cross-border payments business. While the company maintains independent governance, Ripple executives Brad Garlinghouse, Stuart Alderoty, and David Schwartz are expected to serve as strategic advisors. Schwartz, who was instrumental in coding the XRP ledger blockchain associated with Ripple, will be leaving at the end of this year.

Updated to include additional details.