On October 24, 2025, Ripple announced the completion of its $1.25B acquisition of Hidden Road, a global prime brokerage firm, transforming it into Ripple Prime and marking Ripple as the first crypto company to own a multi-asset prime broker, per Times Tabloid and. The deal, finalized after regulatory approvals, integrates Hidden Road’s services—trading, custody, financing, and clearing—with Ripple’s ecosystem, targeting hedge funds and institutions, per. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse called it a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to bridge crypto and traditional markets, per.
A key highlight is Hidden Road’s plan to migrate its post-trade clearing onto the XRP Ledger (XRPL), enabling five-second settlements and handling high-volume institutional flows, per. This leverages XRPL’s efficiency for U.S. Treasury clearing (over $11T daily via FICC), where Hidden Road is a member, per. Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin will serve as collateral for cross-margining between digital and traditional assets, boosting XRP’s role in settlement rails, per. X posts from @SMQKEDQG emphasize this “supercharges XRP’s utility,” with XRPL demonstrating institutional-grade performance, per.
The acquisition positions XRP beyond cross-border payments, embedding it in institutional liquidity and prime brokerage, per. Ripple’s $1B fundraising for an XRP treasury and Rail acquisition ($200M, pending Q4 2025 close) further integrate stablecoin infrastructure, per. This could increase XRPL activity, DEX volume, and TVL, per. With XRP trading at $2.29 (down 0.86% amid SEC ETF delay), the news counters bearish sentiment, per CoinMarketCap. Analysts project XRP at $3.50 by year-end if integrations succeed, per Techopedia.
While the deal enhances XRP’s utility, SEC’s October 2025 ETF delays and regulatory scrutiny pose risks, per. Hidden Road’s FICC membership (effective March 2025) strengthens Ripple’s TradFi ties, but capital controls and compliance hurdles remain, per. X posts from @PaulGoldEagle note XRP’s bridge role for fiat conversions, reducing costs, per. Broader adoption could challenge SWIFT dominance, per.
Track XRPL metrics on XRPScan and Ripple updates via ripple.com. Dollar-cost average into XRP with stop-losses below $2.20, or diversify into USDC or ETH ($4,070), per TradingView. Follow @TheBlock__ on X for developments. The acquisition could drive XRP to $5 by 2026 with institutional flows, per, but monitor SEC rulings, per.
