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

by Amy Lyman April 8, 2025

written by Amy Lyman April 8, 2025

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.

Leading asset manager Ripple announced today that it is acquiring Hidden Road, a fast-growing, crypto-friendly prime broker, for $1.25 billion. Set to be finalized in the coming months, pending regulatory approval, the deal is one of the largest acquisitions in the crypto sector to date.

The move also makes Ripple the first crypto firm to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker, the company shared in the announcement.

The announcement follows reports that Hidden Road was engaged in active takeover discussions. Last week, sources told CoinDesk that the firm, which handles both traditional and digital assets, had received an unsolicited takeover offer from a crypto-native company. The identity of the potential acquirer was not known at the time.

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.