On November 5, 2025, Ripple Labs announced the completion of a $500 million strategic investment round, valuing the company at $40 billion.
This marks Ripple’s first external funding since 2019 and comes amid a surge in institutional interest in blockchain-based financial tools. The round was led by Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities, with participation from heavyweights like Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard, and Marshall Wace.
Notably, Ripple’s president Monica Long emphasized that the company wasn’t actively seeking capital but responded to strong demand from these investors, signaling confidence in its pivot toward broader financial services.
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$40 billion (a ~300% increase from its last round in 2019 at $10 billion). Announced November 5, 2025; fits within the first week of November. Follows a $1 billion share tender offer earlier in 2025 at the same valuation; Ripple also repurchased over 25% of its shares to align with partners
This raise isn’t just financial firepower—it’s a vote of confidence from traditional finance giants betting on Ripple’s role in bridging crypto with real-world applications.
CEO Brad Garlinghouse described it as “validation of Ripple’s growth strategy and business built on the foundation of XRP,” highlighting the company’s evolution from a payments startup to a diversified platform.
Ripple has long been synonymous with cross-border remittances via its Ripple Payments network (powered by XRP), which has processed over $95 billion across 75 regulatory licenses in the past two years.
The new capital is earmarked to accelerate expansion in several high-growth areas: Stablecoins: Ripple is doubling down on its RLUSD stablecoin, recently partnering with Mastercard for settlement services.
This positions RLUSD as a compliant, enterprise-grade option for tokenized payments, potentially rivaling USDC or USDT in institutional adoption.
Payments Infrastructure: Building on XRP’s speed (3-5 second settlements) and low cost, Ripple is enhancing global remittance tools. Recent integrations, like Clear Junction’s multi-currency SWIFT service, underscore this shift toward seamless fiat-crypto bridges.
The funds will fuel custody services for crypto assets, prime brokerage for institutions, and corporate treasury solutions using digital assets. Ripple has made six acquisitions in the last two years (two over $1 billion), broadening its footprint in these domains.
This aligns with a broader crypto-friendly U.S. regulatory environment under the Trump administration, including potential stablecoin legislation and DOJ signals that decentralized protocols like XRP won’t face charges.
On-chain metrics back the momentum: Over 21,000 new XRPL wallets emerged in just 48 hours last week—the largest surge in eight months—hinting at rising adoption. While Ripple’s valuation tripled, XRP’s price has been more tempered, trading around $2.28 as of November 5 up slightly from a weekly 14% dip but far from its July 2025 all-time high of $3.65.
Analysts attribute this to broader market caution (e.g., Bitcoin dipping below $104K), but see long-term upside from: ETF Potential: Spot XRP ETFs from Bitwise and Grayscale could launch by mid-November, unlocking institutional inflows.
Whale Activity: Subtle accumulation amid low volume suggests big players are positioning for growth. X discussions are electric, with users like XRPIntelWire and Crypto_Barbbiet amplifying the news as a “tectonic shift” for global finance.
In short, this funding cements Ripple’s status as a crypto infrastructure powerhouse, with XRP at its core. If stablecoin and payments adoption accelerates as planned, it could propel XRP toward new highs—watch for ETF news and RLUSD milestones in the coming weeks.
Solana DeFi TVL Growth, A Strong Q3 Performance
Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) total value locked (TVL) surged 32.7% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) in Q3 2025, reaching $11.5 billion by the end of September.
This marks a robust recovery and expansion for the ecosystem, driven by key protocols and broader market momentum. Solana’s DeFi TVL has shown volatility but consistent upward trajectory in USD terms over 2025, fueled by low fees ($0.00025 per transaction), high throughput (up to 65,000 TPS), and innovative protocols.
-64% (from Q4 2024): Sharp drop amid market uncertainty, but stablecoin market cap rose 145% to $12.5B offsetting some losses. +30.4% led by Kamino ($2.1B TVL, +33.9% QoQ) and staking growth (64.8% of SOL supply staked, $60B total). DEX volumes dipped 45.4%, but capital efficiency improved.
Top protocols: Kamino ($2.8B, +33.1%), Jupiter ($2.6B, +59.6%), Raydium ($2.3B, +32.3%). Stablecoins hit record $14.1B; RWAs grew 41.9% to $682M. Spot DEX volume +17% to $4B daily.
Early Q4 snapshots (e.g., Nov 5) show temporary dips to ~$9.9B due to price corrections, but Q3 end-of-quarter figures hold at $11.5B. Kamino and Jupiter dominated, with Jupiter’s new Lend product (powered by Fluid) boosting liquidity.
These two alone accounted for ~46% of Solana’s DeFi TVL. Record stablecoin inflows ($14.1B) provided a stable base for lending and trading. Real-world assets (RWAs) like Ondo’s USDY and BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized funds added $682M, up 41.9% QoQ.
Despite a broader DeFi TVL record of $237B across chains (Ethereum at ~$92B), Solana solidified its #2 spot behind Ethereum, with superior capital efficiency—generating $562M in Q2 revenue alone via high APRs (e.g., 14% on stablecoin pools vs. Ethereum’s 3%).
Global DeFi activity cooled daily active wallets -22% QoQ, but Solana bucked the trend with +17% DEX volume growth, highlighting its appeal for high-speed, low-cost trading.
Implications for SOL and Beyond
This TVL milestone underscores Solana’s maturation as a DeFi powerhouse, potentially signaling bullish momentum for SOL price (which hovered around $170-200 in late Q3).
With ETF launches (e.g., Bitwise BSOL in Oct 2025) and ongoing upgrades like Jupiter’s ICO platform, expect continued inflows. However, risks like network outages and market volatility persist—watch on-chain metrics like active addresses (2.2M+ daily) for sustained health.
Jupiter has transformed from a simple DEX aggregator into the cornerstone of Solana’s DeFi ecosystem, often dubbed the “everything exchange for everyone.” Launched in 2021, it now commands ~95% of Solana’s DEX aggregator market share, routes billions in monthly volume, and integrates seamlessly across swaps, perps, lending, and more.
As of November 2025, with $3.58B in TVL, Jupiter isn’t just a tool—it’s Solana’s DeFi operating system, prioritizing user-centric innovation over hype. This deep dive covers its mechanics, growth, tokenomics, and future trajectory, grounded in on-chain data and recent developments.
At its heart, Jupiter is a liquidity aggregator that scans dozens of Solana DEXs (e.g., Raydium, Orca, Meteora) to find the optimal trade route, minimizing slippage and fees while maximizing execution speed.
It leverages Solana’s high throughput up to 65,000 TPS for near-instant settlements. For any swap, Jupiter’s engine (now Ultra v3) evaluates 50+ liquidity sources in real-time, splitting orders across protocols for the best price.
This includes intermediary swaps (e.g., SOL ? USDC via multiple AMMs) and supports every Solana token, even low-liquidity or “forgotten” ones via RTSE (Real-Time Slippage Estimator).
Beyond basic swaps, it offers CEX-like features: limit orders, dollar-cost averaging (DCA), and perpetuals up to 100x leverage with Pyth oracles for accurate pricing. Gasless trading no SOL needed for fees and MEV protection make it accessible for retail users.
Perpetuals (Jupiter Perps): Dominates Solana’s perps market with 80-85% share early in 2025 compressing to ~45% by September amid competition from Drift. Deep liquidity from JLP (Jupiter Liquidity Provider) pools ensures low slippage; recent updates cut SOL borrow fees by 25% for parity with BTC/ETH positions.
Lending (Jupiter Lend): Launched in May 2025 with Fluid, it hit $1B+ TVL weeks after beta. Features high-LTV borrowing (e.g., 7.5x leverage on Multiply) and yields like 16.9% APY on JupSOL/SOL pairs. It’s one of Solana’s fastest-growing protocols, emphasizing capital efficiency over risky over-leverage.
Jupiter’s edge-Ultra v3 Engine: Delivers 96% success rates, 0-1 block confirmations, and 10x lower fees than competitors. It verifies routes pre-execution, preventing “catfished” quotes, and expands gasless swaps ecosystem-wide.
Ecosystem Ties: Powers 35% of Solana’s DeFi invocations; integrates with deBridge for cross-chain bridging. Partnerships include Ethena Labs (for JupUSD), Kalshi (predictions market, Oct 2025), and Meteora (LP strategies).
It’s “frontendless” for new DEXs—protocols like Bloom rely on Jupiter for user routing. Jupiter’s growth mirrors Solana’s resurgence, with Q3 2025 revenue hitting $46M up from $26.5M in Jan. It generates fees via 0.05-0.1% per swap, sharing with partners (e.g., Phantom earns 80% of affiliate revenue).
Early Q4 dips tied to market corrections, but perps and lending inflows persist.Jupiter’s efficiency shines: 4% compute usage for 84% perp volume (vs. competitors like Zeta at 70% for 0.3%). Stablecoin volumes hit $19.4B YTD, with Jupiter capturing $750M in JLP for yield redistribution.