Bengaluru — Cryptocurrency firm Ripple said on Tuesday it would buy multi-asset prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25bn, making it one of the largest acquisitions by the crypto company.
This is the second billion-dollar-plus deal involving a crypto company this year, as digital assets such as bitcoin gain more prominence under US President Donald Trump, who has promised to be the “crypto president”.
“The US market is effectively open for the first time due to the regulatory overhang of the former SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] coming to an end, and the market is maturing to address the needs of traditional finance,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said.
Prime brokers help in the day-to-day operations of clearing, securities lending and leveraged trade execution, among other services.
Large hedge funds and institutional investors usually avail these services.
Hidden Road clears $3-trillion annually across markets with more than 300 institutional clients. The deal will allow Hidden Road to expand exponentially using Ripple’s balance sheet and become the largest nonbank prime broker globally, the crypto company said.
Ripple will also become the only crypto company to own and operate a global multi-asset prime broker due to the deal, which is expected to close in the coming months, it said.
The acquisition also enhances Ripple USD’s (RLUSD) utility as Hidden Road uses the stablecoin as collateral across its prime brokerage products.
Ripple launched RLUSD, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, in 2024, as it sought to disrupt the market dominated by tether and USD coin.
Reuters
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