Are you a #crypto investor? Do you like $XRP?

How would you like to be paid to own $XRP for free? 

No, I have not been hacked, yes, I am engagement farming. 

People may have been following $MSTR and its bitcoin speculation. How about a company that actually makes really nice profits, and is also exposed to crypto worth 50% more than the company's current market value? 

SBI Holdings (8473-JP) owns between 8% and 9% of Ripple, which in turn owns 43.44bn XRP.

The recent resurgence of the crypto craze has seen XRP spike 5-fold to US$3.17 per XRP. Ripple's holding is thus worth around $138bn. 

SBI's look-through ownership of XRP is $11.7bn at current market prices. And that doesn't take into account the value of Ripple itself. This compares to SBI's current market value of only $7.8bn. Essentially, you are being paid to buy SBI, if you believe XRP is valued correctly (admittedly for crypto sceptics, that is a big "IF")

For the value investors out there, SBI trades on 11.7x consensus earnings, and 1x P/B. 

It has a leading online bank and a leading online brokerage, as well as a portfolio of other growing businesses. It has also been a consolidator in the regional banking sector, culminating in the hostile takeover (very rare in Japan) of Shinsei Bank. 

It could be a reasonable investment in itself, but the free option on Ripple/XRP certainly makes it more interesting, even for a crypto non-believer like me. GAM's Global Special Situations Fund managers certainly seem to think so (see screenshot below).

Disclosure - I have no position in SBI or any crypto.
#crypto #XRP #XRP #MSTR