Ripple has completed the purchase of global prime broker Hidden Road and rebranded the business as Ripple Prime, a consolidated trading, funding and clearing desk for institutions, the company announced Friday.
Ripple said the new brand unit’s activity has tripled since the initial announcement and that Ripple Prime now serves more than 300 institutional clients with more than $3 trillion cleared on the markets.
The company positions Ripple Prime as an all-in-one service covering digital assets, foreign exchange, exchange-traded derivatives, over-the-counter swaps, fixed-income clearing and repo, and precious metals, and cites SOC 2 Type II compliance, real-time risk management, and cross-margining.
What prime brokerage means in plain English: For funds and market makers, a prime broker is a one-stop-shop intermediary. Instead of juggling multiple exchanges, lenders and custodians, a client uses a one-stop shop that provides market access, extends financing so that trades are not entirely pre-funded, manages post-trade clearing and settlement, and consolidates collateral and risks across positions.
In traditional finance, this consolidation can reduce friction and improve balance sheet efficiency. Ripple claims that Ripple Prime brings a similar model to digital assets alongside currencies and derivatives.
Today’s update follows Ripple’s announcement on April 8 that it plans to acquire Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. At the time, Ripple framed the deal as making it the first crypto company to own and operate a multi-asset global prime broker.
“We are at an inflection point for the next phase of digital asset adoption,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in an April 8 press release. Hidden Road founder Marc Asch said the tie-up would “unlock significant growth” by adding licensing and venture capital, according to the same release.
Ripple also says the prime brokerage unit will delve deeper into the role of RLUSD, its US dollar stablecoin. The fintech company says some derivatives clients already hold RLUSD balances and use them as collateral for prime brokerage products.
Ripple previously named BNY Mellon as the primary custodian of RLUSD reserves and highlighted researcher Bluechip’s July 2024 “A” rating for stability, governance, and asset support.
The launch of Ripple Prime expands Ripple’s institutional push beyond payments and custody to a broader set of broker-dealer-style services that large trading firms expect.
Large-scale asset and collateral migration will depend on customer demand, market conditions, and Ripple Prime’s performance relative to major incumbent crypto and foreign exchange brokers. For now, Ripple’s presentation to institutions constitutes a single place for access, financing and risk control, with the possibility of using a stablecoin issued by the company as collateral.
