Ripple's recent purchase of the prime brokerage firm Hidden Road for $1.25 billion is getting a lot of attention in the crypto and larger financial sectors.
But according to XRP lawyer John Deaton, the deal is about more than just growing - it shows that the crypto company wants to get a big piece of the institutional finance market, which could be worth over $16 trillion in the next five years.
Alex DovbnyaFor those who missed the news, Hidden Road processes more than $3 trillion in annual transactions for over 300 institutional clients, and now it is integrating the XRP Ledger (XRPL) into its post-trade settlement operations.
Ripple's been working hard to expand its services with the launch of Ripple Custody and some acquisitions, like Metaco and Standard Custody, and it seems like they have bigger plans in mind than just payments and remittances.
Tomiwabold OlajideFor Deaton, Ripple is secretly getting ready to be a big player for institutions that want to get into the blockchain market. They are offering custody, payments and stablecoin services all in one place, which is great news for the asset tokenization movement.
The global custody market could exceed $16 trillion in tokenized assets by the end of the decade, says the lawyer, and Ripple's investments suggest it intends to be deeply involved in this next phase of financial infrastructure.
Gamza KhanzadaevThe company is building the backbone needed for banks and asset managers to tokenize everything from stocks and bonds to real estate directly on the XRPL through its custody solutions and the use of RLUSD as a settlement and collateral tool.
While Ripple's regulatory battles may have slowed its progress in previous years, Deaton says the company is moving aggressively now, putting the pieces in place to meet institutional demand on a large scale.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin