Ripple is acquiring crypto-friendly prime broker Hidden Road in $1.25 billion blockbuster deal

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Key Takeaways

Ripple acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, becoming the first crypto company with a global multi-asset prime broker.
The deal enables Hidden Road to use Ripple USD as collateral and migrate post-trade activity to the XRP Ledger.

Ripple announced today that it is acquiring Hidden Road, a global prime broker, for $1.25 billion, marking one of the largest deals in the digital asset industry. The acquisition makes Ripple the first crypto company to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker.

Hidden Road was reportedly in active takeover talks, sources told CoinDesk in April. The firm, which specializes in both traditional and digital assets, had received an inbound takeover approach from a crypto-native company.

Hidden Road, known for its prime brokerage services like clearing, financing, and trading across multiple asset classes, raised $50 million in the prior 12 months, including from investors like Dragonfly Capital.

Hidden Road currently clears $3 trillion annually across markets and serves more than 300 institutional customers, offering services including clearing, prime brokerage, and financing across foreign exchange, digital assets, derivatives, swaps, and fixed income.

“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,” said Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple.

The deal will enable Hidden Road to leverage Ripple USD (RLUSD) as collateral across its prime brokerage products, making it the first stablecoin to enable efficient cross-margining between digital assets and traditional markets. Hidden Road will also migrate all its post-trade activity to the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

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

Ripple, which holds over 60 regulatory licenses and registrations globally, previously participated in Hidden Road’s Series B funding round. The acquisition is expected to close in the coming months, subject to regulatory approvals.