Armada II shareholders approve merger to take Evernorth public as XRP treasury

Armada Acquisition Corp. II shareholders approved their proposed business combination with Evernorth, clearing a key hurdle toward an XRP treasury company listing. The deal is expected to close on Oct. 7. Shares of the combined company are set to begin trading on Nasdaq under XRPN the following day, subject to remaining closing conditions. Evernorth filed a Form S-4 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in March. The registration statement became effective in August, leaving shareholder approval as one of the remaining steps before listing. Evernorth expects to hold about 473 million XRP at closing, which it says would make it the largest publicly traded pure-play XRP treasury company. Thursday's announcement said the transaction is expected to raise about $300 million in gross cash proceeds. That includes $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. CoinGecko data put XRP at about $1.50 at publication, valuing Evernorth's expected treasury at roughly $710 million. Evernorth's investors include Ripple, Kraken, Pantera Capital, SBI Group, Arrington Capital and GSR. Evernorth plans to grow its XRP holdings per share through yield strategies, participation in the XRP ecosystem and capital markets activities. Tokenization firm Securitize began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in July after merging with Cantor Equity Partners II. CoinShares debuted on Nasdaq in April following a $1.2 billion merger with Vine Hill Capital Investment Corp. However, Ether Machine scrapped its planned merger with Dynamix in April, citing unfavorable market conditions. That decision ended Ether Machine's 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 scrapped their merger's original terms and postponed a shareholder vote indefinitely. The companies were negotiating a deal that would better reflect market conditions.