Ripple Strengthens Its Position: Acquiring Prime Broker Hidden Road and Integrating into Traditional Finance
Date: 2025-04-10 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BUSINESS
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that positive changes are noticeable in the US regarding crypto market regulation, which opens the way to more active adoption of digital assets. According to him, the purchase of Hidden Road will be an important step in creating an infrastructure that combines traditional finance with blockchain technologies.
This strategic acquisition pursues several goals at once. Firstly, thanks to Ripple's support, Hidden Road will gain access to powerful financial resources, which will allow it to claim the status of the largest non-bank prime broker in the world. Secondly, Ripple's stablecoin called RLUSD will be integrated into Hidden Road's brokerage products, acting as collateral. This will increase trust in the asset and strengthen the links between classic and digital financial instruments.
Hidden Road is already a significant player in the industry, serving more than 300 institutional clients and processing over $3 trillion in trades annually. The broker provides settlement and clearing services in areas such as the foreign exchange market, digital assets, derivatives and other financial instruments.
The agreement also provides for the transition of Hidden Road's post-trade processes to the XRP Ledger blockchain developed by Ripple. This solution should significantly reduce transaction costs and increase the speed of transaction processing. In turn, Ripple intends to use this cooperation to expand the range of its solutions in the field of international payments and provide Hidden Road clients with bank-grade custody of digital assets.
Earlier, Garlinghouse emphasized that blockchain can be a key link in reforming the global financial system, especially in the field of cross-border transfers. The Hidden Road deal confirms Ripple's intentions to not only promote its own stablecoin, but also to strengthen the company's role as a bridge between traditional markets and decentralized technologies.
