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Is the crypto bidding war between Ripple and Coinbase heating up?

Three weeks ago the plan for what was supposed to be the biggest takeover in crypto history fell through: Ripple Labs was willing to shell out up to $5 billion for the stablecoin giant Circle, but got nothing on the request.

By Mike Hesp
• 2 min read
Is the crypto bidding war between Ripple and Coinbase heating up?

Three weeks ago the plan for what would have been the largest takeover in crypto history was still off the table: Ripple Labs was ready to shell out up to $5 billion for stablecoin giant Circle, but got nothing on the request. Now Ripple looks to be back with a much higher offer: View post on X crypto analyst Paul Hogan is putting between $9 billion and $11 billion on the table this time. And it won't be Ripple alone—Coinbase is also reportedly joining the race.

Coinbase's interest makes this a serious bidding war. The largest US crypto exchange reportedly has $8 billion in cash on hand, according to its quarterly report. It just acquired the derivatives exchange Deribit.

Circle’s USDC is currently the second-largest dollar stablecoin, with a market cap of $61 billion. By comparison, Ripple’s own stablecoin, RLUSD, launched in December 2024, is not even close to those figures.

But Ripple's plan has drawn criticism in the crypto community. Analyst R89Capital View post on X on X: “Ripple is trying to buy Circle because stablecoins make the use case XRP was meant for completely redundant.” The core of his objection: stablecoins like USDC are widely accepted by traditional financial institutions. If international payments are easy and cheap via stablecoins, why would you still use XRP?

Ripple president Monica Long pushed back on this critique recently. According to her, the value of XRP actually grows as more users and applications are built on the XRP Ledger.

So far neither Ripple nor Circle has commented officially on the takeover rumors. But if the deal goes through, Ripple Labs would jump to the top of the global stablecoin market in one move. A game changer? Absolutely. But for whom—Ripple, Coinbase, or Circle—this remains up in the air for now.

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