Chinese Company Takes a Shot at the Moon With $300 Million XRP Play

A China-based travel booking firm has told U.S. regulators that its plans to establish a $300 million XRP treasury—a corporate-strategy play that has become all the rage among a small crop of public companies following a recent upswing in the cryptocurrency market, despite apparent risks.

Webus International filed on Tuesday a Form 6-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing its plans to add the Ripple-linked XRP token to its balance sheet. The Nasdaq-listed firm entered into an agreement with investment advisor Samara Alpha Management to facilitate the creation of its XRP treasury, according to the filing.

XRP is trading at $2.21, down roughly 3% over the past 24 hours but up 320% over the past year, CoinGecko data shows. XRP surged in value late last year following the election of President Donald Trump, nearly matching its all-time high price mark from 2017 in the process.

A Form 6-K is a regulatory filing that informs U.S. investors when a foreign company issues public statements to investors in its home country. Webus’ filing includes two press releases, issued by the company on May 29 and June 2, respectively. 

“This agreement represents a major step in Webus’s exploration of innovative treasury strategies, though it is important to note that the agreement is structured with a phased implementation approach,” Webus said in the June 2 statement. 

Webus also noted that it plans to integrate blockchain into its systems to streamline cross-border settlements and bolster the transparency of its travel booking services.

Webus International Limited (WEBUS) stock finished the day up nearly 15% at a price of $2.82, pushing its weekly gain to nearly 44%.

The filing comes as a growing number of public companies explore the crypto-holding playbook first popularized by Michael Saylor’s software firm Strategy. A total of 223 public companies hold Bitcoin, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net, totaling $356 billion worth as of this writing.

Meanwhile, companies are also increasingly imitating Strategy’s playbook and adapting it for other tokens—much like Webus. 

Energy-solutions firm VivoPower last week raised more than $100 million to create an XRP-based treasury. Earlier in May, Wellgistics Health announced it would add the asset to its reserves and use it to enable payments.  

Similarly, public company Sharplink unveiled last month its plan to establish an Ethereum-based treasury, while DeFi Development Corp. and Upexi have committed to growing their own Solana stockpiles.

The wave of interest in cryptocurrencies as reserve assets comes as digital assets trading has continued to experience a stunning—if choppy—resurgence over the past few months. 

Bitcoin was recently trading just under $105,000, up 49% in the past year, CoinGecko data shows. The token hit an all-time-high price of nearly $112,000 on May 22. 

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market’s total capitalization has increased nearly 12% over the past three months, with several prominent altcoins trading higher over the same period, according to the same data provider.

Edited by Andrew Hayward