Ripple plans to acquire Hidden Road for $1.25 billion

Ripple has announced the acquisition of multi-asset prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. This will be one of the largest acquisitions in the history of the cryptocurrency company.

This is the second time this year that a cryptocurrency firm has been involved in a deal worth over a billion dollars. This event is taking place against the backdrop of the growing popularity of digital assets such as bitcoin, which is associated with the efforts of US President Donald Trump, who has promised to become a "cryptocurrency president."

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse noted that the American market is actually open for the first time, thanks to overcoming regulatory pressure from the former SEC, and it is ready to meet the needs of traditional financial institutions. Prime brokers such as Hidden Road play a key role in day-to-day operations, including clearing, securities lending, and margin transactions. These services are in demand by large hedge funds and institutional investors.

Today, Hidden Road processes $3 trillion annually in various markets and serves more than 300 institutional clients. The acquisition of Ripple will allow Hidden Road to significantly expand its operations using the company's balance sheet and become the largest non-bank prime broker in the world.

After the completion of the transaction, which is expected in the coming months, Ripple will become the only cryptocurrency company that owns and operates a global multi-asset prime broker.

In addition, this acquisition will increase the importance of Ripple USD (RLUSD), as Hidden Road uses stablecoin as collateral for its prime brokerage services. Ripple launched RLUSD, pegged to the US dollar, last year with the aim of disrupting the market dominated by Tether and USD Coin.