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Ripple completes Hidden Road acquisition and rebrands it Ripple Prime
Ripple has closed its acquisition of prime brokerage firm Hidden Road and rebranded the business as Ripple Prime. The deal, first announced in April 2025, cements Ripple's position as the first crypto company to operate a global multi-asset prime brokerage and strengthens its infrastructure for institutional trading, custody, settlement and financing.
Deal background and strategic rationale
Ripple agreed to acquire Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. Hidden Road provides institutional clients with multi-asset services across digital assets, foreign exchange, derivatives and fixed income. By integrating Hidden Road, Ripple gains a full-service prime brokerage layer that complements its existing products such as on-chain settlement rails, custody tooling and the Ripple USD stablecoin.
What Ripple Prime will offer institutions
Ripple Prime is positioned to deliver settlement, custody, trading and financing to institutional counterparties. The platform aims to bridge traditional finance instruments like FX and derivatives with digital assets, enabling market makers, hedge funds and asset managers to access a unified, compliant trading stack. Ripple will deploy its crypto payments and custody infrastructure to enhance liquidity, reduce settlement times and support institutional adoption of XRP and stablecoins.
Leadership and integration plan
Hidden Road founder and CEO Marc Asch will remain closely involved, working alongside Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and the broader Ripple team to integrate systems, compliance frameworks and client offerings. Integration is expected to continue over the coming months as teams merge technology, operations and risk controls.
Implications for XRP and Ripple USD
Ripple said the acquisition will support broader usage of XRP across settlement use cases and contribute to the adoption curve of Ripple USD, the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin launched by Ripple in late 2024. By combining prime brokerage services with Ripple's stablecoin and infrastructure, institutional clients could gain easier access to on- and off-ramps, improved custody, and streamlined settlement for cross-asset strategies.
Continued expansion via acquisitions
Hidden Road is one of several high-profile purchases Ripple has made over the past two years as it builds a vertically integrated fintech and crypto services group. Other recent deals include GTreasury, Rail, Standard Custody and Metaco — moves that underscore Ripple's push to unite treasury, custody, settlement and payments under a single institutional offering.
With Ripple Prime now operational under the Ripple umbrella, the company is positioned to offer institutional-grade prime brokerage capabilities backed by on-chain settlement and stablecoin liquidity, a combination that could accelerate crypto adoption in traditional finance circles.
Source: crypto
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