Evernorth taps Ripple and three firms for 473 million XRP treasury plans

Evernorth has selected Ripple, Kraken, Coinbase, and BitGo to support investment strategies using its 473 million XRP treasury, with initial deployment planned for the fourth quarter of 2026.

Evernorth announced on Oct. 14 that it plans to generate earnings from its holdings while continuing to accumulate XRP, pursuing an increase in the number of tokens held per share.

Under the company’s announced terms, the partnership agreements remain subject to customary closing conditions and any required regulatory and corporate approvals. Evernorth described an initial institutional investment phase, followed by potential participation in lending and credit markets on the XRP Ledger.

“We’re putting our treasury to work,” founder and CEO Asheesh Birla said.

Evernorth plans institutional XRP investments before on-chain lending

For the first stage, Evernorth said its investment and risk team will oversee strategies conducted through established institutional counterparties. The company selected Ripple, Kraken, Coinbase and BitGo based on their infrastructure, licenses, financial resources and experience serving public companies and asset managers.

According to the announcement, the partnerships are intended to support earnings generation with controls, reporting and counterparty standards suitable for a Nasdaq-listed business. Evernorth also plans to allocate treasury capital directly to decentralized markets once the XRP Ledger’s native lending and credit capabilities have received validator approval and demonstrated reliable operation.

Birla tied the program to the company’s goal of increasing XRP per share, saying Evernorth intends to supply capital when the ledger’s credit markets become available. The company’s announcement presents institutional investment and decentralized finance as successive parts of its treasury strategy.

The investment mandate was already outlined in Evernorth’s merger disclosures. As crypto.news reported on Oct. 10, the company’s completed Armada merger left it with approximately 473 million XRP and about $300 million in gross cash proceeds before transaction expenses.

In those disclosures, Evernorth identified tokenized assets, on-chain credit markets and settlement infrastructure as areas where it intended to provide capital. Its closing announcement named Arrington Capital, SBI Group, Ripple, Pantera Capital, Kraken and GSR among the investors supplying cash and digital assets.

Nasdaq shares provide corporate exposure to the XRP treasury

With Evernorth now trading under XRPN, U.S. stock-market investors can purchase equity in the company that owns and manages the XRP holdings.

A Sep. 30 report examining the XRP treasury’s ownership structure explained that shareholders own corporate equity rather than a direct redemption right for a fixed number of XRP. According to that proxy-based analysis, the exposure behind each share also depends on outstanding shares, liabilities, financing, and transaction costs.

The same report detailed how Evernorth assembled its projected treasury through purchases and contributions. The definitive proxy identified 126,791,458 XRP contributed by Ripple, approximately 211.32 million XRP associated with the sponsor, and a separate 50 million XRP related-party contribution.

Within the proxy’s projected total, roughly 84.37 million XRP had been acquired for $214 million at an average price of approximately $2.53657 per token. Advance and delayed contribution arrangements accounted for another 800,000 XRP, according to the disclosed components.

Before the combination closed, Evernorth revised its listing timetable. An Oct. 7 report covered the company’s revised Nasdaq trading schedule after an administrative issue moved the expected closing from Oct. 7 to Oct. 9 and the planned trading debut from Oct. 8 to Oct. 12.

In its Oct. 6 update, the company said the administrative delay was not expected to prevent completion. Armada shareholders had approved the business combination at their Sep. 30 extraordinary general meeting, according to the accompanying SEC disclosure.

Jeandesboz oversees treasury allocation and trading relationships

To manage the investment program, Evernorth appointed Hugo Jeandesboz as chief investment officer on Sep. 28. In an Oct. 12 announcement, the company said he reports to Birla and leads treasury allocation, liquidity management and active management of its XRP holdings.

According to the appointment release, Jeandesboz also serves as the senior contact for trading counterparties and custodians. He previously worked as co-chief investment officer at Coinbase Asset Management, where he led its Solutions business and managed tailored investment strategies for institutional clients.

Before that role, the company said, he was Coinbase’s lead derivatives trader, covering options, futures and on-chain markets. His earlier experience included interest-rate derivatives trading at HSBC in New York and fixed-income and quantitative trading roles at Société Générale.

In the partnership announcement, Jeandesboz said the four selected firms satisfy Evernorth’s counterparty requirements and that the same risk discipline would govern future on-chain investments.

Convertible financing permits further XRP purchases

Separate financing documents also provide for capital that can support token purchases. A Sep. 21 report detailed Evernorth’s convertible debt financing terms, covering an agreement to issue $30 million in senior unsecured notes with a 4% annual payment-in-kind interest rate.

According to the SEC-filed agreement, Evernorth signed the purchase arrangement on Sep. 11 with NH Investment & Securities, acting as trustee for Kyobo AIM Corporate Finance General Private Investment Trust No. 3. Issuance and payment were scheduled to occur alongside completion of the business combination.

The disclosed permitted uses include general corporate purposes, XRP purchases and activities within the XRP ecosystem. Under the financing terms, interest is added to principal and compounds semiannually, with maturity scheduled for 2031 unless the notes are converted, redeemed, or repurchased earlier.

Holders receive conversion rights beginning one year after the effectiveness date, according to the agreement. The initial rate is 98.03921 Class A shares per $1,000 of principal, equivalent to approximately $10.20 per share.