The pre-merger shell rose as much as 125% on Friday, after a 43% gain on Thursday, ahead of next week's closing. Part of the $300 million headline cash figure may already have been spent on XRP last year.
Crypto · FinancialMarkets.com · October 2, 2026 · Tickers: XRPN, XRP
The stock that will become Evernorth, a company built to hold XRP, has more than doubled in two days without having closed its merger.
Shares of Armada Acquisition Corp. II, already trading under the XRPN symbol, rose as much as 125% from Thursday's close to $52.82 on Friday before trading near $40.30 in the afternoon, up about 72% on the day. Volume was about 7.7 million shares. On Thursday the stock had gained about 42.9% to $23.43.
A special-purpose acquisition company holds about $10 a share in trust before it merges. At $40.30, the shares trade at about four times that amount. At Friday's high, they traded at more than five times.
What the cash is
Evernorth and Armada said on Oct. 1 that the merger is expected to deliver about $300 million of gross cash. That figure includes $225 million from private placements, $30 million of convertible notes and about $48 million from Armada's trust account. Closing is expected on Oct. 7, with trading as the combined company on Nasdaq expected to begin on Oct. 8. Evernorth expects to hold about 473 million XRP at closing.
Not all of that cash may be new. About $214 million of private-placement money was used to buy XRP in late 2025, and some delayed funders have yet to fund. If that $214 million is part of the $225 million placement total, as little as about $89 million of new cash arrives with the closing, before deal expenses. That figure combines about $11 million of remaining placement money, the $30 million of notes and about $48 million in trust.
If all of it went to XRP at Friday's price near $1.50, $89 million would buy roughly 59 million tokens, about 12% of the 473 million the company expects to hold.
What holders own
Expected holdings of 473 million XRP are worth about $708 million at Friday's price. The premium or discount of XRPN to those holdings depends on the post-closing share count, which includes shares issued in the private placements. That number is not yet public.
Oct. 7 and Oct. 8
The closing filing will give the full share count, which allows a calculation of XRP per share. The first sessions as Evernorth on Oct. 8 will show whether the price holds once more shares can trade.