Evernorth clears shareholder vote ahead of Nasdaq debut with 473M XRP treasury

Evernorth is set to become a publicly traded XRP treasury company after shareholders of blank-check firm Armada Acquisition Corp. II approved their proposed business combination.

The deal is expected to close on Oct. 7, with shares of the combined company set to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN the following day, subject to remaining closing conditions.

The vote clears a key hurdle after Evernorth filed its Form S-4 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in March. The registration statement was declared effective in August, leaving shareholder approval as one of the remaining steps before the Nasdaq listing.

At closing, Evernorth expects to hold about 473 million XRP, which it says would make it the largest publicly traded pure-play XRP treasury company.

According to Thursday’s announcement, the transaction is expected to raise about $300 million in gross cash proceeds, including $225 million from related private placements, $30 million in convertible note financing and roughly $48 million from Armada II’s trust. Investors have also contributed XRP directly to the transaction.

XRP was trading at about $1.50 at the time of publication, according to CoinGecko data, putting Evernorth’s expected 473 million-token treasury at roughly $710 million.

Evernorth’s investors include Ripple, Kraken, Pantera Capital, SBI Group, Arrington Capital and GSR. It plans to grow its XRP holdings per share through yield strategies, participation in the XRP ecosystem and capital markets activities.

Related: Ether, XRP ETF inflow streaks end as Bitcoin funds rebound

Crypto treasury SPACs face market headwinds

Evernorth’s planned Nasdaq debut comes as other crypto companies have pursued SPAC mergers to reach US public markets, with markedly different outcomes this year.

Tokenization firm Securitize began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in July after completing its merger with Cantor Equity Partners II, while CoinShares made its Nasdaq debut in April following a $1.2 billion merger with Vine Hill Capital Investment Corp.

However, crypto treasury companies have faced setbacks. Ether Machine scrapped its planned merger with Dynamix in April, citing unfavorable market conditions and ending plans to launch a $1.5 billion yield-bearing Ether fund through the deal.

In July, Adam Back’s Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company and Cantor Equity Partners I also scrapped the original terms of their proposed merger and postponed a shareholder vote indefinitely while negotiating a deal that would “better reflect market conditions.”

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