A recent annual report of British firm VivoPower PLC, filed with the U.S. Securities and Change Fee (SEC) on November 2, 2026, formally disclosed the parameters of the closure of its cryptocurrency technique.
The paperwork recorded the creation and subsequent liquidation of a $5 million stake in the non-public firm Ripple Labs, whereas additionally making public the worth of their buyback at $300 apiece.
A $100 million plan in XRP that failed
Based on the submitting, in Might 2025, VivoPower introduced a large-scale treasury growth with a goal funding quantity of as much as $100 million in XRP tokens and Ripple Labs fairness. In follow, the investments turned out to be extra modest: the XRP treasury allotted $5.0 million to the direct acquisition of 41,810 Ripple Labs shares in January 2026.
For institutional traders, shopping for stakes in the fintech large itself was a key method to make a big wager on the ecosystem’s success.
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Nonetheless, the experiment lasted solely 9 months from its announcement. As early as February, VivoPower’s board of administrators determined to completely wind down the crypto path. Administration acknowledged holding digital property as much less worthwhile than creating synthetic intelligence infrastructure and redirected capital to the acquisition of a 41.5 MW information heart in Mo i Rana, Norway, for $37.7 million.
The method of liquidating this $5 million stake introduced the crypto market an essential value perception. In April 2026, Ripple Labs performed a focused buyback, taking 882 shares from VivoPower at $300 apiece. The deal introduced the British firm $264,600 in money and $159,122 in web revenue, giving the neighborhood a uncommon and arduous marker of how Ripple’s management itself values its enterprise in non-public trades.
A direct sale of the remaining a part of the stake on the open market proved inconceivable because of the personal standing of the securities. Because of this, VivoPower entered into agreements to promote the financial rights to the shares to 2 South Korean companions, KWeather Co. and Lean Ventures.
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As of the submitting date, the Korean offers haven’t but been legally accomplished. The remaining 40,928 shares are locked in the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) below a strict one-year lock-up restriction. On account of this freeze and the shortage of market liquidity, impartial appraisers lowered the e-book worth of this stake to $4.3 million (about $106.16 per share).
The VivoPower story clearly confirmed the crypto business the flip facet of institutional investments: a direct buy of stakes in Ripple Labs comes with strict lock-ups and low liquidity, the place the one quick supply of fiat for exiting the ecosystem is the issuer itself by means of a personal buyback process.
