Ripple has closed its acquisition of non-bank prime broker Hidden Road and rebranded it as Ripple Prime, marking one of the company’s most significant deals to date and substantially expanding its operations beyond the digital assets sector.
Ripple said it is now the first crypto company to own and run a multi-asset prime broker, covering everything from clearing, financing, and brokerage across digital assets, derivatives, swaps, foreign exchange, and fixed-income products for institutional clients.
Ripple Prime’s business activity has already grown threefold since the $1.25 billion acquisition was announced in early April, Ripple said on Friday, adding that more growth from new and existing customers is expected.
Ripple is one of several crypto-native firms that has been bridging TradFi into the digital asset space by integrating blockchain and crypto products for banks to conduct cross-border transactions and other financial operations.
Ripple wants to put its new business on blockchain rails
Ripple, the issuer behind the XRP (XRP) cryptocurrency, said its new business will “significantly enhance the utility and reach” of its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin,
“Ripple’s foundational digital asset infrastructure across payments, crypto custody and stablecoin, as well as the use of XRP, will complement the services offered within Ripple Prime.”
In the future, Ripple also plans to integrate blockchain capabilities into Ripple Prime to streamline operations and optimize costs.
RLUSD is expected to play a key role in that transition, with Ripple noting that certain derivatives customers are already opting to hold their balances in the US dollar stablecoin and that it is also used as collateral for several prime brokerage products.
Ripple is on an acquisition spree
It comes as Ripple has also acquired treasury management system provider GTreasury last Thursday and stablecoin-powered payment platform Rail in August.
Related: Trump on CZ pardon: I’m told ‘what he did is not even a crime’
Those agreements were built on the acquisitions of Standard Custody in June 2024 and Metaco in June 2023 — making it six strategic deals in 28 months as part of Ripple’s broader push to offer blockchain and crypto products to institutions.
Magazine: Mysterious Mr Nakamoto author: Finding Satoshi would hurt Bitcoin
