Ripple Acquires Hidden Road for $1.25 Billion, Eyes Institutional Expansion

Ripple has acquired crypto-friendly prime brokerage Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, marking one of the largest M&A deals in crypto history. The move signals Ripple’s continued push into institutional markets and underscores the growing intersection between traditional finance and blockchain technology.

A Strategic Play for Institutional Scale

Founded in 2018, Hidden Road is a global prime broker and credit network servicing over 300 institutional clients. The firm clears more than $3 trillion annually, providing services such as securities lending, cash management, custodial settlement, and transaction financing.

Ripple said the acquisition would allow it to deliver digital asset solutions to institutions at a broader scale. The firm plans to integrate its own Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin into Hidden Road’s infrastructure, using it as collateral across the brokerage’s product suite.

“This is a defining moment for the XRP Ledger and for Ripple,” said David Schwartz, Ripple’s CTO. He added that Ripple now has the opportunity to bring institutional volume to its blockchain, potentially through tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and broader collateralized use cases.

Unlocking New Use Cases for XRP Ledger

While Ripple has previously positioned the XRP Ledger as a scalable platform for tokenization, real-world adoption has been limited. To date, the ledger hosts only two RWAs valued at around $50 million. With the acquisition of Hidden Road, Ripple may now have the infrastructure and client base needed to expand on-chain activity significantly.

“Now imagine even a portion of Hidden Road’s daily $10 billion clearing volume running through the XRP Ledger,” Schwartz wrote on social media. “That’s what we’re building toward.”

Timing and Market Dynamics

Ripple’s acquisition comes amid a changing regulatory landscape in the U.S., where a shift in oversight has opened the door for broader institutional participation in digital assets.

According to a recent EY-Parthenon poll of 352 institutional investors:

• 86% reported holding or planning to hold digital assets in 2025.
• Investments in Bitcoin ETFs by institutions managing over $100 million rose 114% last quarter to $27.4 billion, per CoinShares data.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse commented that the U.S. market is now “effectively open” and that institutions are ready to explore blockchain-based financial products. “The market is maturing to address the needs of traditional finance,” he said.

Ripple USD to Compete in Stablecoin Arena

As part of the deal, Ripple will further integrate its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin into Hidden Road’s operations. RLUSD will be used as collateral across Hidden Road’s trading and lending platforms, potentially giving the token a strategic advantage in the increasingly competitive stablecoin market.

With institutional clients looking for regulated, dollar-pegged assets to settle trades, RLUSD’s use in prime brokerage operations could drive demand and utility.

M&A Activity Surges in Crypto

The acquisition is part of a broader uptick in crypto-related mergers and acquisitions. According to Architect Partner, 62 crypto M&A deals closed in Q1 2025 — up from 59 in Q4 2024 and nearly double the 33 recorded in Q3 2024.

Ripple’s $1.25 billion deal follows closely on the heels of Kraken’s $1.5 billion acquisition of futures platform NinjaTrader, underlining the momentum in large-scale strategic investments despite recent market volatility.

What It Means For You [NFA]

If you’re watching the institutional side of crypto, Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road could be a key turning point. By bringing traditional finance infrastructure into its ecosystem, Ripple may help unlock new uses for XRP and expand adoption of RLUSD.

However, real-world asset tokenization remains early-stage, and success will depend on execution, regulation, and market demand. As always, it’s important to stay informed and cautious when evaluating the long-term impact of these moves.

Community Reaction

As is often the case when it comes to Ripple – many people were happy, many people were sad, many people were optimistic while many were sarcastic. Ripple on social media is what we call Absolute cinema.

• XRPcryptowolf: “$1.25 billion????? No wonder XRP crashed so hard jk”
• Joseph Reid: “So How does this help XRP the token? I see a bunch of branches all from the benefit of selling XRP monthly but it seems like the XRPL and RLUSD are it’s own thing and benefit each other and not XRP the token when it comes to the Public / retail…”
• User6969696969: “Good morning sir, I thought you said something about acquisitions being made after the lawsuit was over. Is this along the lines of what you were thinking?”