Ripple Set to Buy Hidden Road for $1.25B in Strategic Deal

Ripple has made a major power moves as it agrees to acquire one of the fastest-growing prime brokers. This landmark deal makes Ripple the first crypto company to fully own and operate a global, multi-asset prime brokerage platform.

It announced acquiring Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, representing one of the largest deals in the digital assets space. 

Ripple’s Acquisition Boosts RLUSD’s Role

Notably, Ripple’s acquisition also boosts the roles of its stablecoin positioning it as a major player in real-world finance. Hidden Road will use RLUSD as collateral across its services, making it the first stablecoin to enable smooth cross-margining between crypto and traditional markets.

Hidden Road will move its post-trade operations to the XRP Ledger (XRPL) to cut costs and improve efficiency, showing XRPL’s strength as a top choice for institutional DeFi. Besides, Ripple plans to boost efficiency in its Ripple Payments platform by cutting costs and improving liquidity, while also offering secure, bank-grade digital asset custody for Hidden Road’s institutional clients.

Hidden Road is already a major player, handling $3 trillion a year for over 300 top institutions. With Ripple’s backing, it’s now set to scale rapidly and become one of the world’s largest non-bank prime brokers, helping bridge the gap between traditional and decentralized finance.

This marks the second billion-dollar crypto deal of the year, as digital assets gain momentum under President Trump. These acquisitions come at a time when the crypto industry is optimistic over relaxed crypto regulations. Earlier, in March, Kraken, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said that it would buy retail futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, in a deal that would allow it to expand into multiple asset classes and grow its user base.

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Ripple Hints At Collab With Cardano

Ripple recently shared a tokenization video featuring the Cardano logo sparking speculation of a potential partnership. The clip highlights RWA tokenization’s $18.9T potential by 2033, fueling excitement in both communities. However, there is no confirmation yet from either sides. 

In reaction to this development, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse noted that the crypto industry is entering a new phase. For the first time, the U.S. market is truly open to digital assets because previous regulatory uncertainty from the old leadership is fading. At the same time, the crypto space is growing more mature and starting to meet the expectations of traditional finance. This creates a huge opportunity for wider adoption and growth.