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Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki al Saud, who is spearheading the private offering (Fayez Nureldine/Getty Images)
XRP marks the spot

VivoPower International joins crypto treasury trend, plans to raise $121 million to buy XRP

The US Securities and Exchange Commission also started reviewing a proposed spot XRP exchange-traded fund.

Sage D. Young

Energy firm VivoPower announced a private capital raise of about $121 million to deploy an XRP-focused digital asset treasury strategy, just as the US Securities and Exchange Commission started reviewing a proposed spot XRP ETF. 

Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Abdulaziz Al Saud, who is also the chairman of Eleventh Holding Company, led the private offering and said the embrace of a digital asset treasury model was influenced by meeting US President Donald Trump, according to a Wednesday SEC filing

“Having met with President Trump and his leadership group during their recent visit to Saudi Arabia, we believe the timing is appropriate for digital assets and blockchain technology to be rolled out in the Kingdom,” Al Saud said in the SEC filing and press release.

XRP, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, at $133.8 billion, is largely flat today, while shares of VivoPower have dropped 12% on the news, though the stock was on a run-up in the past week and is still up 22% from seven days ago.

Adam Traidman, former Ripple board member, participated in the investment offering and has also joined VivoPower’s board of advisors as chairman. The investment offering will close if VivoPower’s shareholders approve it at a shareholder meeting, which is expected to occur on June 18. 

“The Company intends to use the majority of the funds raised to accumulate XRP and establish its XRP-focused treasury operations, as well as to contribute and invest in the XRPL DeFi ecosystem,” the SEC filing said.

VivoPower’s move is part of a broader trend of publicly traded companies turning to crypto treasury strategies, championed by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, which has been acquiring bitcoin since 2020. While the “pivot to bitcoin” may be losing its luster, altcoins are now having a moment in the reserve spotlight. SharpLink Gaming revealed plans this week to make ethereum its treasury reserve asset, while other companies like SOL Strategies, Upexi, and DeFi Development Corp have been focusing on scooping up more solana tokens.

VivoPower’s announcement comes after the SEC published its notice that it was reviewing the WisdomTree XRP Fund, a proposed spot XRP ETF that, if approved, would be the first XRP ETF in the US. 

The agency is currently seeking public comments on whether the proposed ETF “is designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts,” according to a Tuesday release. A spot XRP ETF would enable investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency through traditional brokerage accounts without directly owning the digital asset. As for which crypto will get the next spot ETF, it looks like it’s down to XRP, which Kaiko Research has picked as the winner, or solana or litecoin, which Bloomberg picked as the two most likely to be approved next.

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Crypto exchange Blockchain.com confidentially files for IPO

Blockchain.com, one of the oldest crypto firms, announced it confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a step toward conducting an initial public offering.

The number of offered shares and price range has yet to be determined, according to a Thursday press release. If the company completes its IPO, Blockchain.com would join Circle and Bullish as crypto companies that have gone public in the year.

Simultaneously, a number of other companies, namely ethereum development firm Consensys, security hardware firm Ledger, and rival crypto exchange Kraken, have paused their plans to IPO due to rough market conditions.

The exchange started in 2011 as a bitcoin search engine before expanding to providing wallets and powering bitcoin transactions. The company raised funds through a series of funding rounds, with a Series D funding round in 2022 giving the firm a $14 billion valuation at the time.

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Hyperliquid ETFs top inflows as HYPE soars

While investors are opting out of ETFs focused on the two largest cryptocurrencies, some are adding ETFs of alternative coins, chief among them being hype, the native token for Hyperliquid. 

Digital asset managers 21shares and Bitwise rolled out hype ETFs last week and have yet to notch any outflows. Tuesday saw the highest level of inflows so far at over $11 million, outpacing XRP and solana ETFs’ combined inflow of nearly $5.3 million. Meanwhile, bitcoin and ethereum saw $393 million exit their funds yesterday, according to SoSoValue.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted the 21shares Hyperliquid ETF “is growing volume each day since launch in the tens of millions now, 8x over day one, which is [a] really good sign of organic interest.”

The ETF flows coincide with the token’s outperformance, jumping 5.7% in the last 24 hours, 29.5% in the past seven days, and more than 100% year to date, data from CoinMarketCap shows. Bitcoin, ethereum, solana, and XRP are all down double digits in 2026.

Hype began trading a week after former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler announced ending his tenure, and has an all-time high price of $59.30, set in September 2025.

Hyperliquid, the perpetual futures exchange built on its own blockchain, gained traction among users who wanted to trade assets such as commodities, cryptocurrencies, and equities with leverage in hours when traditional venues are closed. 

Treasury firm Hyperliquid Strategies has also rallied on news the SEC will soon greenlight trading tokenized versions of stocks.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan thinks investors are underestimating Hyperliquid’s impact and value. “The market is valuing Hyperliquid as a perpetual crypto futures exchange that happens to be growing quickly. But it should be valued as a global super-app covering all assets,” Hougan said in a Tuesday memo.

“Its addressable universe is not the $3 trillion crypto market, but the $600 trillion market for global assets. Those are two completely different businesses,” Hougan continued. “Today’s prices suggest you’re being offered the second at the cost of the first.”

Last week, Coinbase and Circle announced a new agreement with Hyperliquid. Coinbase became Hyperliquid’s official treasury deployer of Circle’s USDC on Hyperliquid, a move that translates to sharing around 90% of stablecoin reserve yield with the protocol.

99% of fees generated on Hyperliquid are dedicated to token buybacks, which, annualized, comes to $618 million, data from DefiLlama shows. The market capitalization of hype stands at $12.3 billion. 

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Ethereum exits: Investors depart its ETFs and the Ethereum Foundation shrinks (again)

On Monday, two researchers announced they were leaving the nonprofit organization tasked with supporting the second-largest blockchain network, adding to a growing exodus from the Ethereum Foundation.

Carl Beek, who helped architect the early design of ethereum’s beacon chain, will end his seven-year tenure with the foundation at the end of the month, while research scientist Julian Ma, who focused on product and growth work, has also decided to leave after four years.

Beek and Ma deepen a recent bout of turnover. Last week, the foundation said in a blog post that lead developers Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko are moving on from the organization. In April, Josh Stark, who was on the Ethereum Foundation leadership team for five years, left, as did Trent Van Epps, who organized Protocol Guild, which provides funding to core developers. The string of departures has raised concerns among those in the ecosystem.

“There have been a lot of disagreements about where ETH should move, whether from an issuance or architectural standpoint,” Laurens Fraussen, a research analyst at data provider Kaiko, told Sherwood News. “I’d assume the people leaving are either looking for greener pastures or don’t agree with the way the EF is being run.”

The foundation exodus comes as investors exit from ethereum ETFs. The investment vehicles saw more than $86 million in outflows on Monday, making six straight days of outflows, the longest streak since March, according to SoSoValue.

Meanwhile, an address identified as Galaxy Digital has a $2.3 million short position on ethereum using 20x leverage on Hyperliquid, data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen shows. The price of ethereum stands just under $2,110 as of 12:10 p.m. ET. With an entry point of $2,203, the firm has an unrealized gain of $102,000.

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