• CoinDesk reports Armada Acquisition Corp. II (XRPN) rose about 273% in a week, from $10.58 to a $39.42 Friday close, and briefly touched $53.
• CoinDesk reports Evernorth expects to hold about 473 million XRP at closing, roughly $714 million at about $1.51 per token on Monday, October 5, 2026.
• Per CoinDesk, financing is mostly private money: $225 million of private placements and $30 million of convertible notes, against about $48 million of remaining trust proceeds.
• About 80% of trust funds are estimated to be returned to shareholders, so the surge is not backed by new public cash.
• Evernorth's earlier purchase of 84.4 million XRP at an average $2.54 was worth about $127 million at the same $1.51 price, per CoinDesk.

Armada Acquisition Corp. II, the SPAC set to merge with XRP treasury company Evernorth, rose about 273% in a week to close Friday at $39.42, per CoinDesk's October 5, 2026 report, and briefly touched $53. CoinDesk says the merger is expected to close on October 7. The price action says more about SPAC mechanics than about demand for XRP, and the financing structure explains why.

What the price move does and does not show

The surge is a move in a merger vehicle's shares, not in the underlying token. CoinDesk reports the stock went from $10.58 to $39.42 in a week, while the trust held about $10.49 per share at the end of June. That gap between market price and cash backing is the notable fact. It points to speculative demand for the post-merger ticker, and it is not evidence that XRP itself was revalued.

Financing is mostly private, not public

Most of the money behind the deal is private. CoinDesk reports about $300 million of gross proceeds: $225 million from private placements, $30 million in convertible notes and about $48 million of remaining trust proceeds. It estimates roughly 80% of trust funds are returning to shareholders. Evernorth's own August 27 release names Arrington Capital, SBI Group, Ripple, Pantera Capital, Kraken and GSR as investors. Redemptions of that size mean most public SPAC holders are exiting rather than funding the treasury.

The treasury's balance sheet

Evernorth expects to hold about 473 million XRP at closing, which CoinDesk values at roughly $714 million at about $1.51 per token, the price it cites for Monday, October 5, 2026. Both figures are a snapshot at that price and an expectation, not a confirmed closing balance. The holding is large relative to the public cash left in the trust, so the combined company's value would depend heavily on a single volatile asset.

An earlier tranche is below its purchase cost

CoinDesk reports Evernorth bought 84.4 million XRP for $214.1 million through the end of 2025, an average of $2.54 per token, and that this tranche was worth about $127 million at roughly $1.51 on October 5. That is a paper loss of about 40% on the tranche at that price. The origins do not say how the loss is accounted for or whether it affects the deal terms, so this is context rather than a finding.

What to watch next

The first signals come after trading starts, which CoinDesk says is expected on October 8. Watch whether the shares keep trading far above the value implied by the XRP holdings, whether the final XRP count matches the 473 million estimate, and what the closing filings say about custody and investor lock-ups. A treasury SPAC is a financing wrapper rather than a payments or custody business, so those disclosures are the details that matter for readers tracking crypto as financial infrastructure.