Ripple has completed its acquisition of global prime broker Hidden Road and rebranded the business as Ripple Prime, a collection of trading, lending and payments desks for financial institutions, the company announced on Friday.
Ripple said the newly branded division’s business has tripled since its initial announcement, with Ripple Prime now serving more than 300 institutional customers and transacting more than $3 trillion in payments across markets.
The company positions Ripple Prime as an all-in-one service that spans digital assets, foreign exchange, exchange-traded derivatives, over-the-counter swaps, fixed income clearing and repos, and precious metals, citing its SOC 2 Type II compliance, real-time risk management, and cross-margining.
Simply put, prime brokerage means: For funds and market makers, a prime broker is a one-stop intermediary. Rather than juggling multiple exchanges, lenders, and custodians, customers use a single desk that provides market access, extends financing so pre-funds are never fully traded, handles post-trade clearing and settlement, and aggregates collateral and risk across positions.
In traditional finance, consolidation reduces friction and improves balance sheet efficiency. Ripple says Ripple Prime brings a similar model to digital assets similar to FX and derivatives.
Today’s update follows the April 8 announcement that Ripple intends to acquire Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. At the time, Ripple was positioning the deal to become the first crypto company to own and operate a global multi-asset prime brokerage.
“We are at a tipping point for the next phase of digital asset adoption,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a press release on April 8. According to the release, Hidden Road founder Mark Ash said the merger would “enable significant growth” by adding licenses and risk capital.
Ripple also said its prime brokerage division will further deepen the role of its USD stablecoin, RLUSD. The fintech company said some derivatives customers already hold RLUSD balances and use them as collateral for prime brokerage products.
Ripple previously named BNY Mellon as the primary reserve custodian for RLUSD, noting that it earned an “A” rating for stability, governance, and asset backing from researcher Bluechip in July 2024.
The launch of Ripple Prime expands Ripple’s organizational push beyond payments and custody to a broader set of broker-dealer-like services expected by major trading companies.
Whether or not to migrate assets and collateral at scale will depend on customer demand, market conditions, and how Ripple Prime performs against existing prime brokers in both crypto and FX. For now, Ripple’s pitch to financial institutions is a single venue for access, funding and risk management, with the possibility of using company-issued stablecoins as collateral.
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