- Ripple finalizes its $1.25 billion purchase of non-bank prime broker Hidden Road, rebranding it as Ripple Prime
- The integration will enable up to $3 trillion in annual transactions to settle on the XRP Ledger.
- With Ripple Prime’s launch, Ripple positions itself as a key institutional gateway.
Ripple has just acquired prime brokerage firm Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, rebranding it as Ripple Prime. The deal positions Ripple as the first crypto-native company to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker. With this acquisition, Ripple aims to bridge traditional finance with digital assets for institutional heavyweights.
The acquisition caps a flurry of strategic buys for the San Francisco-based blockchain giant, including last week’s purchase of treasury management firm GTreasury.
Hidden Road, founded in 2018, has carved a niche as a non-bank prime broker. It has cleared a staggering $3T in annual transactions across foreign exchange, derivatives, swaps, fixed income, and digital assets.
Serving over 300 institutional clients (including hedge funds and asset managers), the firm has seen its business triple since the deal’s announcement, fueled by Ripple’s backing. Under the new Ripple Prime banner, these services will integrate seamlessly with Ripple’s ecosystem. They will also leveraging the XRP Ledger for faster, cheaper settlements and tokenization of real-world assets.
Ripple Prime Deal is a Huge Win for XRP
With the new acquisition, Ripple intends to settle $3 trillion in annual Hidden Road transactions (now Ripple Prime) on the XRP Ledger. This means a ton of financial assets will be tokenized. On XRPL.
Meanwhile, XRP itself will be required for every single transaction, bringing much-needed utility to the asset.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, speaking alongside Hidden Road’s Marc Asch in the official release, emphasized synergies
“Ripple Prime will leverage blockchain capabilities… as well as the use of XRP, to complement its services, streamline operations, and optimize costs.”
This includes bolstering Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, rated ‘A’ for stability by Bluechip and custodied by BNY Mellon, as collateral for brokerage products, potentially accelerating adoption among risk-averse institutions.
Ripple Acquisition Couldn’t Come at a Better Time
With Bitcoin hovering near all-time highs and tokenized assets projected to hit $10 trillion by 2030, Ripple Prime arrives as Wall Street warms to crypto. Analysts see it as a counter to competitors like BlackRock’s tokenized funds, offering end-to-end services from custody to clearing.
“This is one of the largest deals in the digital assets space,” noted a Hidden Road statement from April, highlighting Ripple’s ambition to “enhance institutional access to digital assets at scale.”
As Ripple eyes further expansion, Ripple Prime isn’t just a rebrand; it’s a blueprint for crypto’s institutional era. With $3 trillion in flows potentially routing through XRP, the ledger’s burn mechanism could drive scarcity and value.
