Ripple to Acquire Prime Broker Hidden Road for $1.25B, Strengthening Its Institutional Strategy

Key Points:

• Ripple has agreed to acquire prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion.

• Reports last week revealed that Hidden Road was in talks for a potential takeover.

Ripple has reached an agreement to acquire multi-asset prime brokerage firm Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, making it one of the largest mergers and acquisitions in the digital asset sector.

Reports indicated last week that Hidden Road was engaged in active takeover discussions.

Hidden Road processes over $3 trillion annually across foreign exchange, derivatives, digital assets, and fixed income markets, serving more than 300 institutional clients, according to the announcement of the deal.

The funding terms for the acquisition were not disclosed.

“With the U.S. market finally opening up and digital assets maturing for institutional adoption, this is a turning point,” said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in a statement.

“We are accelerating our expansion, utilizing XRP and our broader solutions to bridge traditional finance and crypto,” Garlinghouse added.

Ripple plans to inject additional capital into Hidden Road to expand its clearing, prime brokerage, and financing operations, with the goal of making Hidden Road the largest non-bank prime broker worldwide.

The acquisition also enhances Ripple’s stablecoin strategy. Hidden Road will use Ripple’s U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, RLUSD, as collateral across its prime brokerage platform. According to Ripple, RLUSD will be the first stablecoin enabling efficient cross-margining between traditional and digital asset markets.

Additionally, Hidden Road intends to migrate its post-trade operations to the XRP Ledger (XRPL), aiming to lower costs and streamline the settlement process. Ripple expects this move to further establish XRPL as a blockchain optimized for institutional DeFi use cases.

Ripple, which participated in Hidden Road's Series B funding round and has been a customer of its platform, stated that the deal is expected to close in the coming months, pending regulatory approval. The company currently holds more than 60 regulatory licenses worldwide.