Ripple Acquires Hidden Road for $1.25 Billion: A Step Towards Institutional Influence
Date: 2025-04-09 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: BUSINESS
Ripple has announced a deal to acquire Hidden Road, a platform that provides brokerage and lending services to institutional clients. The deal is valued at $1.25 billion, making it one of the largest in the history of the cryptocurrency industry. Subject to regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close in the coming months.
With this move, Ripple has become the first crypto company to own a global multi-asset prime broker. Hidden Road serves more than 300 institutional clients, and its annual volume exceeds $3 trillion. Ripple plans to use the broker’s potential and licenses to expand its infrastructure and enter new markets.
As Hidden Road CEO Mark Ash noted, the deal will open up new opportunities for launching products and expanding the range of available assets. An important element of the integration will be the use of the RLUSD stablecoin as a collateral instrument. This will allow for cross-margin trading between traditional and digital assets for the first time.
In addition, after the deal is closed, Hidden Road's infrastructure will be partially transferred to the XRPL blockchain, which should contribute to the growth of Ripple's user base and the popularization of their technological solutions.
According to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, this acquisition is a key stage in strengthening the company's position among institutional participants in the digital market and a step towards wider integration of cryptocurrencies into the global economy.
Against the backdrop of these events, the XRP token is showing growth. Standard Chartered analysts predict its rise in price to $5.5 by the end of 2025, to $8 by 2026, and to $12.5 by 2028. This optimism is explained by the growing demand for cross-border payments and the role of XRPL as an accelerator of international transfers.
Experts see XRP as an analogue of Bitcoin in terms of growth potential, especially given possible changes in SEC policy and the likely launch of exchange-traded funds based on the token. Despite the challenges in the form of a lack of developers and limited “extractable” value of XRPL, these weaknesses are offset by the growing interest in tokenization and digital payment solutions.
According to CoinGecko, the XRP token is trading at $1.95, demonstrating a daily growth of 8.8% and a capitalization of $114.13 billion.
It is worth noting that Ripple recently withdrew its appeal against the SEC, and the first XRP-ETF from Teucrium Investment Advisors has already been presented in the United States.
