Ripple, a cross-border payment service provider, has announced on social media platform X, the acquisition of Hidden Road, a prime brokerage firm for $1.25 billion. With this acquisition, Ripple becomes the first crypto company to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker.
Hidden Road is said to provide a wide range of financial services, including clearing, prime brokerage, and financing across various assets such as digital assets, foreign exchange, and many more.
With this acquisition, Ripple will expand its services for institutional investors and will be bridging traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi). In this way, increasing institutional adoption in the crypto space.
Hidden Road is said to process over $3 trillion annually, serving more than 300 institutional clients, which also includes hedge funds. With Ripple’s acquisition, Hidden Road’s capacity will increase, and it will become one of the largest non-bank prime brokers around the globe.
The Role of RLUSD
RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin, will be used as a as a form of security across Hidden Road’s prime brokerage products. This move will enable efficient cross-margining (using the value of one asset to offset risk or requirements of another asset) between digital assets and traditional markets. With this, RLUSD becomes the first stablecoin to be integrated in such a manner. This will also help RLUSD solidify its position as a high-end, reliable, and secure option for large-scale businesses and institutions.
Hidden Road will also be using Ripple’s XRPL for post-trade activities (clearing, settlement, custody and reporting). With this move, the operations will become more efficient, especially for cross-border payments. It will also make trading faster and more cost-efficient.
Brad Garlinghouse Weighs In
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, thinks that this acquisition of Hidden Road is a step towards transformation for both the companies and added “We are at an inflection point for the next phase of digital asset adoption – the US market is effectively open for the first time due to the regulatory overhang of the former SEC coming to an end, and the market is maturing to address the needs of traditional finance.”
Garlinghouse also highlighted that Ripple with this innovation is changing the crypto space and further added “With these tailwinds, we are continuing to pursue opportunities to massively transform the space, leveraging our unique position and strengths of XRP to accelerate our business and enhance our current solutions and technology.”
Ripple’s XRP Price Impact
With this development along with the launch of first-ever US-based XRP ETF by Teucrium Investment Advisors has led to a sense of excitement within the XRP community. Both of these developments have boosted the price of the XRP token. With the launch scheduled for today, the price of the token, as per analysts, could also cross $2 mark today.
At press time, the price of the token stands at $1.97 with an uptick of 11.6% in the last 24 hours as per CoinGecko.
With this strategic acquisition, of Hidden Road, RLUSD’s involvement and and Teucrium’s ETFs, XRP is set for continued growth and is solidifying its position as one of the key players in developing the digital asset landscape.
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