Evernorth, the Ripple-backed company holding about 473 million XRP (XRP), slipped 1.05% in its first session on Nasdaq as an early rally faded.
Key Points:
- Evernorth shares jumped more than 13% early Monday before closing at $16.91.
- About 80.3% of the SPAC's public shareholders cashed out before the merger closed.
- The listing itself creates no direct demand for XRP, which also fell on the day.
Evernorth XRPN Nasdaq Debut
The stock, trading under the ticker XRPN, opened at $16.68 on Monday and climbed to nearly $19.40, more than 13% above Friday's close.
Sellers took over within hours. Shares closed at $16.91 on volume of nearly 1.29 million shares, then edged higher after the bell.
The listing followed Evernorth's merger with Armada Acquisition Corp. II, a blank-check company whose shares traded under the same ticker until the deal closed Oct. 9 after an administrative delay pushed back the original Oct. 8 debut.
Roughly 80.3% of the SPAC's public shareholders redeemed their stock for cash beforehand, pulling about $195 million from the transaction.
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Asheesh Birla XRP Strategy
Evernorth enters public markets with about 473 million XRP and roughly $300 million in gross cash proceeds, backed by Arrington Capital, Pantera Capital, Kraken, SBI Group and GSR. Michael Arrington, whose fund sponsored the SPAC, called backing Evernorth a natural extension of his firm's XRP thesis. Chief Executive Asheesh Birla said the company will deploy capital across the XRP economy while pursuing strategies to "grow XRP per share over time."
The debut itself adds no new demand for the token.
Investors contributed much of the treasury as existing XRP in exchange for equity, so buying XRPN shares does not trigger purchases of the cryptocurrency. Any new demand depends on future token purchases. On Monday, the company named Hugo Jeandesboz, a former co-chief investment officer at Coinbase Asset Management, to oversee its investment strategy and manage its treasury allocation.
XRP Treasury Value Slide
A filing shows XRP's reference price fell from $2.36 when the deal was signed to $1.43 at closing, a drop of about 39.5%. That cut the holdings' value from roughly $1.12 billion to $677 million.
The swings started before the merger closed, as Armada shares lost 50.3% on Oct. 6 after trading as high as $53 on Oct. 2. That peak was about five times their Sept. 28 close of $10.58. Even after the crash, the shares stayed about 81% above that level.
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