Brad Garlinghouse denies Ripple’s reported $5 billion bid to acquire Circle

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company never tried to buy Circle, countering reports of a multibillion-dollar takeover bid.

Georgetown Law professor Chris Brummer said Garlinghouse told him during an on-stage interview at a private event in Las Vegas on June 1 that Ripple “never pursued an acquisition of Circle” and the topic was not under consideration.

Brummer added that Garlinghouse “wished the company well” but viewed Circle’s business as outside Ripple’s current plans.

Rumored bid

Reports surfaced on April 30 that Ripple had offered between $4 billion and $5 billion for Circle, citing unnamed sources who said Circle rejected the price as too low and left open the possibility of future talks. 

Circle has been preparing for an initial public offering since filing registration documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 1, and its leadership has not commented publicly on valuation or timing. 

Garlinghouse’s statement in Las Vegas is the first direct rebuttal from Ripple’s senior management to the takeover rumor.

During the same session, Garlinghouse outlined plans to position Ripple’s upcoming RLUSD stablecoin as on-ledger collateral for transactions settled on the XRP Ledger. 

Broader strategy

He framed RLUSD and the firm’s recent acquisition of prime-brokerage platform Hidden Road as steps toward building market infrastructure that links traditional finance with tokenized assets. 

Garlinghouse said Ripple is working with officials in the United Arab Emirates on real-estate tokenization pilots and urged crypto companies to avoid public disputes that damage industry credibility, referencing Ripple’s donation of the “Satoshi skull” artifact as a gesture of inter-network diplomacy.

Garlinghouse also recounted past meetings with the SEC, describing differences in staff engagement during the agency’s long-running litigation against Ripple. 

Brummer wrote that the comments highlighted the personal stakes involved in regulatory battles and the hybrid future Ripple envisions, where tokenized assets, stablecoins, and banks operate on interconnected rails.

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