Asheesh Birla
Asheesh Birla is the founder and chief executive officer of Evernorth, an XRP-focused digital asset treasury company based in San Francisco, California.[1] He assumed the role in October 2025 after more than a decade at Ripple, the blockchain payments company, where he led its enterprise payments business.[2][1] Evernorth describes him as an entrepreneur and blockchain executive with more than 25 years of experience in Silicon Valley.[3]
Early Life and Education
Birla studied economics with a concentration in computer science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, earning a bachelor's degree.[4] He later completed a Master of Business Administration at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.[2][3]
Career
Early Technology Roles
Asheesh Birla began working at Thomson Reuters in December 2002 as a software engineer, developing a publishing platform for authors, teachers, and students. In October 2005, he became vice president of technology, working on digital products for the company's higher education and K–12 businesses, which served as a basis for later work with blockchain.
From July 2009 to March 2010, Birla served as vice president of eCommerce at Thomson Reuters/Cengage Learning in Belmont, California. He was responsible for launching and operating the Cengage Learning textbook rental service through cengagebrain.com. His work included setting rental prices, developing sales and marketing strategies, establishing distribution channels, and assembling teams for customer service, operations, and finance.
Between March 2010 and May 2011, Birla worked as director of product management at Kno, Inc., an education technology company later acquired by Intel. During this period, he launched an iPad application for purchasing and reading textbooks. In 2011, he also served as an advisor to Kidaptive, another education technology company.
Ripple
Birla joined Ripple in 2013 as a member of its founding team. He served as senior vice president of product management and corporate development until August 2020. His work included developing cross-border payment solutions using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, as well as advising companies operating in the blockchain sector.
In August 2020, Birla became general manager of RippleNet, the company's payments network. He held the position until July 2022, overseeing its product, engineering, sales, marketing, and customer success functions. During his tenure, he contributed to the launch of Ripple's first enterprise cryptocurrency product. The company expanded to more than 1,000 employees during this period.
Birla joined Ripple's board of directors in 2022 and remained a member until October 2025, when he left the position to focus on Evernorth.
Board and Advisory Roles
Birla held several board and advisory positions in the financial technology and cryptocurrency industries. From March 2019 to April 2020, he served as a board observer at Nium, a payments company headquartered in Singapore. He held the same role at MoneyGram International from January 2020 to March 2021.
From October 2019 to September 2021, Birla was a board member of Bitso, a cryptocurrency exchange operating in Latin America.
Between July 2022 and October 2025, he worked as an independent investor and advisor. His investments included Skyfire, Flipside Crypto, PartyBid, Coast, Rails, and SuperFocus, a company focused on artificial intelligence. He also served as an investor and advisor to Credit Hydra.
Birla has served as a guest lecturer at the Wharton School since May 2018.
Evernorth
Birla founded Evernorth in 2025 and became its chief executive officer in October of that year. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company focuses on digital asset treasury operations involving XRP. Its investors include Ripple and Pantera Capital, among others. The company has reported raising more than $1 billion in investor funding.
Evernorth pursued a public listing through a proposed merger with Armada Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company. The transaction was intended to result in a Nasdaq-listed company trading under the ticker XRPN. In July 2026, a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed a $44 million equity award for Birla. The proposed merger was subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. In late August 2026, the SEC cleared Evernorth's Form S-4 registration statement, a step in the proposed listing process.
In an interview with Bloomingbit published on June 10, 2026, Birla discussed the company's approach to digital asset treasury management. He stated that companies holding cryptocurrencies could face limitations if they relied solely on increases in asset prices and described Evernorth's model as one intended to generate returns from digital asset holdings, real-world assets, and XRP.
Birla said Evernorth was evaluating activities involving decentralized finance on the XRP Ledger, including lending, liquidity provision, and asset management. He identified real-world asset applications as an area of interest for the company's initial business activities.
In the same interview, Birla discussed the tokenization of financial assets on the XRP Ledger. He stated that tokenized assets on the network totaled approximately $2 billion, compared with less than $1 billion a year earlier. He cited Guggenheim Partners' tokenization of commercial paper and described Franklin Templeton as working on a tokenized money-market fund project.
Birla also discussed Evernorth's plans for South Korea, which he identified as a market with demand for XRP. He said the company intended to establish a local subsidiary and pursue a stock-market listing in the country after completing its proposed U.S. listing. Regarding the U.S. transaction, he noted that the company had initially targeted the first quarter of 2026 and had filed an amended registration statement with the SEC while awaiting approval.
Birla commented on the CLARITY Act, which was under discussion in the United States at the time of the interview. He said its passage could affect digital asset regulation internationally and contribute to the development of tokenization in South Korea.
Evernorth has also undertaken activities related to the Japanese market, including launching a Japanese-language information channel focused on XRP. As of the information reported, the company had not announced plans for local operations in Japan. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Interviews
Evernorth’s XRP Treasury Plans #01
On November 11, 2025, Asheesh Birla, CEO of Evernorth, discussed the company’s proposed XRP treasury in an interview on the Thinking Crypto YouTube channel. The conversation covered the company’s capital-raising plans, treasury management, proposed Nasdaq listing, and approach to market risk.
Birla explained that Evernorth was established to provide exposure to XRP through traditional brokerage accounts, allowing investors to access the asset without directly holding or managing cryptocurrency wallets. He described the company’s approach as an actively managed treasury, with plans to combine conventional trading strategies and decentralized finance (DeFi) activities. According to Birla, a portion of the returns generated through these activities would be reinvested in XRP, with the aim of increasing the quantity of XRP held per share.
The proposed initial capital raise was $1 billion, although Birla indicated that the company could pursue additional funding opportunities after the initial transaction. He also discussed the methods available for acquiring XRP, stating that the company intended to evaluate market options and manage purchases according to its treasury requirements. In addressing potential market downturns, he cited long-term planning, leadership experience, and risk management as elements of the company’s approach.
The interview also covered Evernorth’s planned public listing under the ticker symbol XRPN on Nasdaq. Birla contrasted the company’s active treasury model with exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which generally provide passive exposure to an underlying asset. He explained that Evernorth intended to pursue yield-generation strategies in addition to holding XRP, while presenting treasury companies and ETFs as distinct investment structures.
Birla discussed the relationship between regulatory frameworks and institutional participation in digital asset markets. He also addressed the possible use of stablecoins, including Ripple USD (RLUSD), to facilitate access to decentralized finance protocols within the XRP ecosystem. Regarding the broader financial sector, he described tokenization as a means of representing assets such as equities, real estate, and debt on blockchain networks.
Birla further discussed the possibility of financial markets adopting continuous trading and liquidity management systems. In his view, decentralized finance and automated technologies, including artificial intelligence, could contribute to the development of these systems. He identified the XRP Ledger as infrastructure intended to support payments and tokenized assets, while noting that wider adoption would depend in part on regulatory developments and participation from financial institutions. [7]
