Meta stockholders recently rejected a proposal to consider adding Bitcoin (BTC) to its treasury. Now people are wondering if the Mark Zuckerberg-led firm could be considering XRP instead?
Yesterday, Meta shareholders voted down a proposal to consider adding Bitcoin to the company’s treasury. The pitch was initially presented by investor Ethan Peck who was representing the National Center for Public Policy Research.
According to Peck, Bitcoin could act as a better store of value, safe from inflation and low bond return. However, the board rejected the idea, citing that Meta already has a solid treasury system that focuses on capital preservation and liquidity. Nearly 205 million shares were broker non-votes, with 8.9 million absent.
Meanwhile, this was just a few weeks after a rumor broke out in mid-May that the tech giant might be looking to acquire Ripple Labs, the company behind XRP. The speculation started during a TechPath YouTube interview featuring XRP Las Vegas event director Bradley Kimes, who gave a talk about Meta’s growing interest in Stablecoins and cross-border payments. These are actually areas in which Ripple specializes and has a strong presence.
“Whether it’s Ripple or whether it’s Meta targeting them or what have you, I see this is the moment where special things like this can take place. Meta has to have a plan. Now, if that plan involves trying to acquire Ripple, I don’t know” Kime said during the interview.
While this is just a rumor and neither Meta nor Ripple has made any public statements about it, the issue does raise speculation about a possible connection between the two companies. However, If Meta does acquire Ripple, it would gain access to XRP, potentially adding it to its treasury, along with Ripple’s expanding stablecoin infrastructure.
Companies Seize XRP as Hotcake for Treasury Strategies
Meanwhile, several companies have started a trend of adding XRP to their treasury strategies. A move that was first started with Bitcoin. Yesterday, Webus International Limited, a Hangzhou-based corporation, announced that it is planning to buy around $300 million worth of XRP to build its crypto reserves.
According to previous reports, the firm plans to raise the funds with non-equity financing using loans from banks and institutional credit. The company also said it plans to integrate XRP because it’s low-cost and offers performance.
A few days before that, on May 28, VivoPower, a Nasdaq-listed energy company shared that it also raised $121 million in sales it made from private shares to fund its XRP treasury strategy. This sale was reportedly led by Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Abdulaziz Al Saud himself who invested $100 million, while the company sold 20 million shares for $6.05 per share.
So, while Meta is still weighing its options, other companies have already jumped on this trend. More companies might look to also add XRP as a treasury asset if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approves XRP ETF. As of now, the SEC is still reviewing applications and no decision has been made yet.