San Francisco-based enterprise blockchain company Ripple has announced that it is acquiring prime brokerage Hidden Road for a staggering $1.25 billion.
Hidden Road boasts hundreds of institutional clients that include hedge funds and quant traders. Ripple itself is a longtime customer of the prime brokerage. It was a participant in Hidden Road's Series B funding round.
The acquisition will make it possible for the company to bolster its fledgling stablecoin business, according to CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Axios reports. Ripple's RLUSD, whose market cap is now approaching $300 million, will be used as collateral across Hidden Road's various products.
Alex DovbnyaWith this deal, Ripple also aims to position the XRP Ledger (XRPL) as the go-to option for institutionally oriented decentralized finance (DeFi) since Hidden Road will be using the blockchain network for handling post-trade activity.
"With this deal and the backing of Ripple’s significant balance sheet, Hidden Road will exponentially expand its capacity to service its pipeline and become the largest non-bank prime broker globally," Garlinghouse said.
The price of XRP is up by more than 3% on the news. The token is currently approaching the $2.0 level, according to CoinGecko data.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin