Ripple Completes $1.25 Billion Acquisition of Hidden Road, Launches Ripple Prime

Ripple has finalized its $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road and rebranded the business as Ripple Prime, becoming the first crypto company to own and operate a global multi-asset prime broker. The deal, initially announced in April 2025, marks a significant milestone in Ripple’s expansion beyond payments and custody into full broker-dealer services.

### Ripple Prime: Serving Institutional Clients at Scale

Since the acquisition, Ripple Prime has experienced rapid growth, tripling its business activity and now serving over 300 institutional clients. The platform has cleared more than $3 trillion across diverse markets, including digital assets, foreign exchange, derivatives, swaps, fixed income, and precious metals.

Ripple Prime offers a comprehensive single platform that allows institutions to manage trading, financing, and clearing in one place, eliminating the need to coordinate with multiple service providers. The platform provides advanced features such as real-time risk management, cross-margining capabilities, and SOC 2 Type II compliance, ensuring high standards of security and operational excellence.

This all-in-one approach is especially beneficial for hedge funds and market makers, who can now execute exchange-traded derivatives, over-the-counter swaps, repo transactions, and fixed income clearing through a single intermediary.

### Integration of Ripple’s RLUSD Stablecoin

An integral component of Ripple Prime’s portfolio is Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. Some derivatives clients on the platform already use RLUSD to hold account balances, and it is increasingly being accepted as collateral for prime brokerage products. The stablecoin is backed by BNY Mellon, which serves as its primary reserve custodian.

In July 2024, Bluechip, a respected researcher, awarded RLUSD an “A” rating for its stability, governance, and asset backing. Ripple plans to further integrate blockchain technology into Ripple Prime’s operations to streamline processes and reduce operational costs.

### Strategic Growth and Future Outlook

Marc Asch, founder of Hidden Road, highlighted that the merger unlocks new growth opportunities by adding licenses and risk capital to the combined entity. Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, described the acquisition as an inflection point for digital asset adoption, signaling the company’s commitment to expanding its influence in the institutional crypto market.

This acquisition is Ripple’s sixth in 28 months, following recent purchases of GTreasury, Rail, Standard Custody, and Metaco. These strategic moves enable Ripple to broaden its service offerings and compete directly with traditional prime brokers in both crypto and foreign exchange markets.

With Ripple Prime, Ripple solidifies its position as a leading institutional platform, providing seamless, multi-asset prime brokerage services designed to meet the evolving needs of the digital asset ecosystem.
https://coincentral.com/ripple-completes-1-25-billion-hidden-road-acquisition-launches-prime-brokerage-service/