Ripple has announced its acquisition of Hidden Road for US$1.25 billion, marking one of the largest transactions in the digital assets sector.

With this acquisition, Ripple becomes the first cryptocurrency company to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker.

Hidden Road is a rapidly growing prime broker that provides a comprehensive suite of services to institutional clients, including clearing, prime brokerage, and financing.

Its offerings span foreign exchange (FX), digital assets, derivatives, swaps, and fixed income.

The company clears approximately US$3 trillion annually and serves over 300 institutional customers.

Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, commented on the deal, stating,

“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.”

“With these tailwinds, we are continuing to pursue opportunities to massively transform the space, leveraging our position and the strengths of XRP to accelerate our business and enhance our current solutions and technology.”

The acquisition aims to drive further institutional adoption of digital assets by providing the necessary infrastructure for professional trading services that are standard in traditional finance.

Ripple and Hidden Road plan to bridge the gap between traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi), bringing digital assets to institutional customers at scale.

Hidden Road’s post-trade activities will be migrated to Ripple’s XRP Ledger (XRPL), which is expected to streamline operations and reduce costs.

This shift also positions XRPL as a key player in institutional DeFi. Additionally,

Hidden Road will use Ripple’s USD-backed stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), as collateral in its prime brokerage products, marking RLUSD as the first stablecoin to enable efficient cross-margining between digital assets and traditional markets.

Marc Asch, the CEO and Founder of Hidden Road, stated,

“With new resources, licences, and added risk capital, this deal will unlock significant growth in Hidden Road’s business, allowing us to increase capacity to our customer base, expand into new products, and service more markets and asset classes.”

The deal is expected to close in the coming months, pending regulatory approvals.

Featured image credit: edited from freepik

This article first appeared on Fintech News Singapore