Ripple Introduces Digital Asset Spot Prime Brokerage in the U.S. After Acquiring Hidden Road

Ripple has revealed its plans to broaden its institutional presence in the United States by launching digital asset spot prime brokerage services.

Key Takeaways

Ripple has launched digital asset spot prime brokerage services in the U.S. after acquiring Hidden Road.
The new service, Ripple Prime, will offer U.S. institutions access to OTC spot execution for multiple cryptocurrencies, including XRP.
Ripple Prime facilitates advanced trading strategies by allowing clients to manage various financial instruments under a single account.
Ripple aims to enrich the crypto market by providing solutions that enhance liquidity and efficiency for institutional investors.

Ripple XRP

This strategic move follows Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road, a multi-asset prime brokerage firm, which has now been rebranded to Ripple Prime. The integration merges the regulatory and operational frameworks of both companies, establishing a robust institutional trading platform.

Growing Ripple’s Institutional Reach

With the finalization of the Hidden Road acquisition in October 2025, Ripple is making significant strides in becoming a comprehensive resource for institutional clients active in the digital asset space.

Ripple Prime now offers U.S.-based institutions access to over-the-counter (OTC) spot executions involving numerous prominent cryptocurrencies, including XRP and Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, which is backed by the U.S. dollar.

The platform utilizes Ripple’s blockchain expertise combined with Hidden Road's established prime brokerage services, covering a wide array of asset classes such as foreign exchange (FX), digital assets, derivatives, swaps, and fixed income.

Through this integration, institutional investors can execute intricate trading strategies effectively within a regulated environment.

Enhanced Trading and Cross-Margin Features

Ripple Prime’s OTC spot functionality enriches its institutional product offerings, enabling clients to cross-margin their assets and trades across various digital instruments. Clients based in the U.S. can now manage their OTC spot trades, swaps, as well as CME futures and options positions all from a single account.

Michael Higgins, the international CEO of Ripple Prime, emphasized that this development is central to the company's goal of creating a seamless institutional framework:

“The introduction of OTC spot execution capabilities enhances our current range of OTC and cleared derivative services in digital assets, positioning us to offer U.S. institutions everything necessary to fulfill their trading strategies and requirements,” Higgins explained.

This prime brokerage model tackles significant institutional challenges in the crypto market, such as fragmented liquidity and inefficient collateral management, by integrating spot and derivatives markets under Ripple’s management.

Delivering Institutional-Level Solutions to Digital Assets

Ripple’s foray into the U.S. prime brokerage sector is a significant step in the evolution of the cryptocurrency industry. This initiative is in response to the increasing demand from financial institutions for regulated, transparent, and efficient digital asset services.

The infrastructure that supports Ripple Prime expands upon the company’s overall ecosystem, which encompasses Ripple Payments—a blockchain-based platform for cross-border payments—and Ripple Custody, a safe storage service for institutional assets. Both initiatives leverage Ripple's technology, including XRP and RLUSD, to improve liquidity, settlement efficiency, and compliance.

Ripple’s Ongoing Mission in Financial Innovation

Established in 2012, Ripple aims to bridge traditional finance and blockchain technology. With the launch of Ripple Prime in spot trading, the company now offers a complete suite of institutional-level solutions, ranging from payments and custody to multi-asset trading and financing.

By fusing blockchain transparency with established financial systems, Ripple is focused on making digital asset markets as accessible and effective as traditional capital markets, reinforcing its vision of a more interconnected and open financial system.

RLUSD Achieves $1 Billion Market Capitalization

Ripple recently announced that its U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, RLUSD, has reached a market cap of $1 billion merely one year after its launch. This achievement positions RLUSD as one of the most reliable and transparent stablecoins for institutional engagement. Additionally, RLUSD is fully backed 1:1 by USD reserves and has quickly captured attention among enterprise users seeking compliant and efficient settlement methods.

With Ripple Prime, GTreasury, and Rail now part of Ripple’s ecosystem, both $RLUSD and $XRP are facilitating quicker, compliant, and scalable settlement solutions across international markets.

Ripple asserts that this collaboration underscores its commitment to advancing the future of finance through innovation, transparency, and robust institutional infrastructure.