Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has contradicted recent media reports that his firm reportedly offered between $4 and $5 billion to acquire USDC issuer Circle and bring the stablecoin issuer in-house. XRP price pumped over 10% on the news, from $2.1 to $2.3, but has since cooled off.
During an onstage conversation at the Ripple Conference in Las Vegas last week, Garlinghouse spoke with Law Professor Chris Brummer in a non-broadcast segment. Brummer posted to X yesterday (June 3), stating that “Brad (Garlinghouse) was unequivocal—Ripple never pursued an acquisition of Circle.”
48 hours ago I joined @bgarlinghouse on stage in Las Vegas to get his thoughts on the future of @Ripple. While the session wasn’t broadcast live, I found his remarks quite interesting, and worth a tweet.
Quick overview/takeaways:
· Brad was unequivocal that Ripple didn't pursue… pic.twitter.com/6a3lI8DZZj
— Chris Brummer (@ChrisBrummerDr) June 3, 2025
XRP Price Pumped Off Of What Is Now Being Reported As Fake News: Ripple CEO Denies Circle Buyout Offer
The first reports of Ripple buying USDC issuer Circle came from Bloomberg, in an article from a few weeks back, they said Circle rejected the offer as it was too low. The report claimed that Coinbase, which has a longstanding relationship with the stablecoin issuer, made a counterbid.
Soon after these reports began circling (excuse the pun), a Circle representative told multiple media outlets that the firm is unequivocally “not for sale,” quashing the rumors instantly.
That denial from Circle did not stop the XRP price from increasing over 10%, from around $2.1 to $2.3 in a few days. During the same period, Bitcoin has spiked 1% and is trading back over $105k as it prepares for another leg up.
Following Brummer’s statement regarding Garlinghouse denying any bid for Circle had been made, the Law Professor went on to note his takeaways from the conversation with the Ripple CEO.
He said, “Ripple is betting on a world where crypto and traditional finance are hybridized—where tokenized assets, stablecoins, and traditional financial institutions coexist and interoperate.”
In the same X Post, Brummer went on to say that if Ripple, which has been on a buying spree of late following the dismissal of its multi-year lawsuit with the SEC, were to make additional acquisitions, it would target firms that connect to the real world such as “fiat-on ramps and payment processors.”
He elaborated this thought: “Think not only picks and shovels, but also bridges between the old and new.”
DISCOVER: The 12+ Hottest Crypto Presales to Buy Right Now
Circle Still Looking To Go Public While Ripple’s RLUSD Stablecoin Set To Rival USDC
While the Ripple buying Circle rumors have been put to bed, the stablecoin issuer is still looking to go public. The firm underwent a $7.2 billion valuation earlier this week under the ticker CRCL. It will sell 32 million Class A common stock shares for between $27 and $28.
Circle’s plan to go public dates back several years. In 2022, the firm canceled a planned SPAC merger, which would have taken it public at a $9 billion valuation.
On the other hand, Ripple Labs announced plans to issue a rival dollar-pegged stablecoin, RLUSD, in April 2024. In early December 2024, Ripple received approval from the New York Department of Financial Services to begin rolling it out.
Since its launch, RLUSD has grown significantly. Its initial market cap was $70 million, and today, it sits at $330 million. However, RLUSD still has a way to go to catch up to Circle’s USDC stablecoin, the seventh-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with $61 billion.
USDC is the second-largest stablecoin on the market, behind Tether’s USDT, which has a market of over $153 billion. Ripple’s RLUSD has a long way to go to catch up to either, but early signs are positive, given its growth over the past six months.
Chris Brummer’s comments regarding Ripple acquiring TradFi and web3 firms came after Ripple spent $1.25 billion to buy out the global credit network Hidden Road in April 2025.
Hidden Road is a prime brokerage firm that clears $3 trillion annually across multiple markets and serves over 300 institutional customers. It was briefly the largest crypto M&A deal until Coinbase purchased Deribit for $2.9 billon in May 2025.
BREAKING: 🇺🇸 Ripple’s $RLUSD Stablecoin Has Earned Approval From Both The New York NYDFS & Dubai’s DFSA!
BULLISH FOR $XRP!💥📈 pic.twitter.com/RsL4ae6Hbs
— Good Morning Crypto (@AbsGMCrypto) June 3, 2025
BONUS: After The Fake News XRP Price Pump, Is Solaxy (SOLX) The Best Crypto To Buy Right Now?
(SOURCE)
Solaxy (SOLX) is well on its way to being the biggest crypto presale of 2025 as it closes in on $44 million raised with just 12 days before the ICO ends.
With the XRP price falling following the official denial of Ripple buying Circle, investors are looking to utility projects such as Solaxy for their next blue-chip investment.
This brand new Layer-2 (L2) solution for Solana is the talk of the town right now, with investors keen to get in on the ground for a project with first-mover advantage.
While Ethereum is inundated with L2 protocols such as Optimism, Arbitrum, and Polygon, among many more, Solana has precisely zero L2 infrastructure projects.
At the same time, the L2 ecosystem on Ethereum is valued at over $16 billion, highlighting what a lucrative sector Solaxy is entering, especially considering the lack of competition on Solana.
The SOLX team isn’t content with just launching the first ever L2 on Solana, already they’ve announced a built-in DEX and a Pump.Fun competitor named ‘Igniter Protocol’.
Solaxy is already becoming a one-stop-shop tool ecosystem that thrives off the Solana mainnet infrastructure while maintaining low-cost fees and maximum network stability.
Users can launch a token via Igniter, see it bond directly onto the Solaxy DEX, and then trade it directly from the DEX. This offers investors a platform capable of end-to-end token creation tools, utilizing roll-up technology on the L2 backend to keep things running smoothly.
With roll-up technology, Solaxy will help lighten the burden on Solana’s mainnet by batching transactions together, processing them off-chain, and sending them back to the mainnet for final settlement. This will not only ease Solana’s stress, which it has long struggled with at times of peak activity, but it will also maintain the low costs and high speeds the network is known for.
As previously mentioned, there are fewer than 12 days before the SOLX presale closes for good, taking its early-bird prices with it. This is the last chance to secure stock in Solana’s first-ever L2 protocol before it hits the open market.
Visit The Solaxy (SOLX) Presale Today
Explore: Next 1000x Crypto – 11 Coins That Could 1000x in June
Join The 99Bitcoins News Discord Here For The Latest Market Updates
Why you can trust 99Bitcoins
Established in 2013, 99Bitcoin’s team members have been crypto experts since Bitcoin’s Early days.
Weekly Research
100k+Monthly readers
Expert contributors
2000+Crypto Projects Reviewed
