Ripple has raised $500 million in a new strategic investment round led by Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities, valuing the crypto firm at $40 billion. Other participants included Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard and Marshall Wace.

"This investment reflects both Ripple’s incredible momentum, and further validation of the market opportunity we’re aggressively pursuing by some of the most trusted financial institutions in the world," said Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO. "We started in 2012 with one use case — payments — and have expanded that success into custody, stablecoins, prime brokerage and corporate treasury, leveraging digital assets like XRP. Today, Ripple stands as the partner for institutions looking to access crypto and blockchain."

The deal comes on the heels of Ripple’s recent $1 billion tender offer at the same valuation. This latest funding is structured as new common equity and expands Ripple’s investor base to include some of the biggest names in finance," said the company.

Best known for leveraging the XRP token in payments infrastructure, Ripple has expanded beyond cross-border remittances. Over the past two years, it has acquired six companies — including two billion dollar-plus deals — among them, custody provider Metaco, stablecoin platform Rail, and treasury firm GTreasury.

Those acquisitions are beginning to reshape Ripple’s business. Ripple Payments, its flagship product, now handles over $95 billion in volume. RLUSD, Ripple’s recently launched stablecoin, surpassed $1 billion in market cap this week and is already being used as collateral in Ripple Prime, the firm’s institutional brokerage platform.