Ripple, the San Francisco-based blockchain company best known for the cryptocurrency XRP, is rapidly transforming into a new kind of financial powerhouse. It poses a question: Can a crypto-native company reinvent itself as an institutional financial heavyweight without losing the innovative spark of blockchain technology?
In a series of aggressive acquisitions and strategic moves, Ripple is pushing crypto technology into the core of institutional finance. The company’s recent $1.25 billion purchase of Hidden Road, a global prime broker, and the swift growth of its own stablecoin RLUSD (now approaching a $1 billion market cap) are twin milestones that underscore Ripple’s ambitions.
Once a startup focused on cross-border payments, Ripple now stands on the cusp of becoming a major player in mainstream financial markets, leveraging its war chest to buy up key financial infrastructure and legitimize crypto assets in the eyes of big money.
Ripple’s Hidden Road acquisition, finalized in late October, marks the first time a crypto firm has owned a global multi-asset prime brokerage. The deal, announced in April and now completed, rebrands Hidden Road as Ripple Prime and instantly embeds Ripple into the daily machinery of Wall Street-style trading. Prime brokers are central to institutional finance: they clear trades, lend securities, provide leverage, and manage risk for hedge funds and asset managers. By taking the helm of Hidden Road’s operations – which span foreign exchange, derivatives, digital assets, and fixed income – Ripple gains direct influence over how and where crypto fits into this ecosystem. The platform’s scale is considerable, clearing about $3 trillion in transactions annually for more than 300 institutional clients.
“Owning a prime broker signals that crypto is settling into the very center of institutional finance,” one analysis noted, emphasizing that prime brokers are the gatekeepers of professional trading. They decide who gets access to borrowing, which assets count as collateral, and how trades are settled. Now, with Ripple in charge of such gatekeeping, the company can ensure that crypto assets – especially XRP and RLUSD – are treated on par with stocks or bonds rather than as exotic outliers. It’s a play not just for market share, but for legitimacy and the power to set industry standards, as Ripple integrates blockchain-based assets into traditional financial pipelines.
Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse cast the Hidden Road deal in historic terms.
When announcing the acquisition, he hailed it as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to connect the crypto economy with traditional markets. To Garlinghouse, bringing a prime broker under Ripple’s roof means XRP is no longer just a speculative digital token; it becomes “a critical piece of the plumbing” of global finance. In practical terms, Ripple Prime plans to begin settling some trades on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) blockchain instead of through slower traditional bank networks.
By injecting XRP and RLUSD into the settlement process, Ripple aims to demonstrate that crypto can move large sums quickly and reliably for institutional purposes. “We are at an inflection point for the next phase of digital asset adoption,” Garlinghouse said, noting that U.S. regulatory pressures have eased and the market is finally maturing to welcome such integration. Notably, Hidden Road’s U.S. entity recently secured a FINRA broker-dealer license, further anchoring Ripple’s prime brokerage in the regulated financial arena.
As one analyst observed, “Hidden Road isn’t a flex. It’s infrastructure. It’s the final puzzle piece — giving Ripple a fully integrated, lightning-fast, global value settlement system”. In short, Ripple’s prime brokerage venture is designed to embed crypto into Wall Street’s core, blurring the line between crypto upstarts and established financial institutions.
RLUSD: A Stablecoin Enters the Spotlight
At the center of Ripple’s strategy is RLUSD, the company’s U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin. Launched only last year amid ambitions to challenge Tether and USDC, RLUSD has quickly grown to become a pillar of Ripple’s institutional offerings.
The Hidden Road deal immediately boosts RLUSD’s utility: the stablecoin is now being used as collateral for prime brokerage products, and some of Hidden Road’s derivatives clients have already begun holding balances in RLUSD instead of traditional dollars.
By encouraging big traders to settle trades and post margin in RLUSD, Ripple is effectively inserting its digital dollar into the plumbing of finance. This could drive demand for RLUSD as more institutions use it to move funds and secure trades, rather than relying on wire transfers or other stablecoins. Jack McDonald, Ripple’s Head of Stablecoins, reported that since the deal’s announcement, interest in RLUSD among institutional clients has surged, with balances climbing steadily.
Ripple has gone to great lengths to position RLUSD as a “regulated” and trustworthy stablecoin for institutions.
In July, independent ratings firm Bluechip ranked RLUSD the #1 stablecoin for stability, governance and asset quality, giving it a rare ‘A’ grade. The stablecoin is fully backed by cash deposits and U.S. Treasuries, and Ripple has appointed the venerable Bank of New York Mellon as the primary custodian of RLUSD’s reserves.
Such measures are meant to reassure institutional users (and regulators) that RLUSD is managed with the same rigor as a traditional money market fund. “We’re committed to meeting the highest expectations of institutional users and regulators,” Ripple declared when unveiling BNY Mellon’s role, underscoring the intent to make RLUSD a bank-grade digital asset.
Yet despite these accolades, the market’s verdict on RLUSD is cautious. Of an estimated $300+ billion in stablecoins circulating globally, RLUSD’s market value stands at roughly $900 million – placing it around 20th in size. That’s only about 0.3% of the stablecoin sector, a drop in the bucket next to the likes of Tether (over $80 billion) or USDC.
In other words, Ripple’s stablecoin has a long way to go before it’s a household name in crypto trading.
Even so, RLUSD’s growth has been striking in recent months.
According to Ripple’s latest attestation reports, RLUSD’s circulation more than doubled from $400 million in August to nearly $900 million by the end of October. Company officials say this momentum is a sign that institutional demand for a compliant, reliable stablecoin is picking up, especially as new use cases emerge. For instance, Ripple revealed that an electric-vehicle company began accepting RLUSD for payments to speed up international sales settlements.
And in some emerging markets, fintech platforms are using RLUSD for remittances and swaps, attracted by its 1:1 dollar stability without the volatility of XRP. Ripple maintains that RLUSD is not meant to replace XRP but to complement it – acting as a “liquidity amplifier” that can bridge traditional banking with the crypto network. The real test for RLUSD will be whether it can convert its early credibility into broader adoption. If Ripple Prime succeeds in integrating RLUSD across prime brokerage services, and if partnerships like the BNY Mellon custody instill confidence, RLUSD could inch closer to the big leagues of stablecoins in the years ahead.
A Spending Spree to Build a Crypto Empire
The Hidden Road takeover is just one piece of Ripple’s acquisition binge – an aggressive M&A strategy that has seen the company spend well over $2 billion in the last two years to expand its footprint. Rather than pursue a public stock listing or organic growth alone, Ripple has been snapping up companies that fill critical gaps in its vision of an end-to-end crypto-enabled financial network.
Hidden Road is actually the fifth major acquisition since 2023, part of a deliberate plan to assemble all the tools needed to bridge crypto with institutional finance.
“We are definitely a player in M&A right now,” Ripple President Monica Long said earlier this year, indicating that the company is leveraging private funding to broaden XRP’s global use cases fast.
Just last week, Ripple announced plans to acquire GTreasury, a treasury management software provider, for $1 billion. GTreasury’s platform is used by corporations to manage cash and investments – a sign that Ripple wants to integrate crypto (and RLUSD) into corporate treasury operations and payments. A few months prior, in August 2025, Ripple agreed to buy Rail, a Toronto-based stablecoin payments startup, for $200 million. Rail’s technology allows businesses to send cross-border payments via stablecoins, and reportedly handles about 10% of global stablecoin payment volume.
That deal, expected to close by year-end 2025, will bolster Ripple’s stablecoin payment network and help “deliver the most comprehensive stablecoin payments solution on the market,” Monica Long said at the time.
Earlier acquisitions focused on the infrastructure behind digital assets. In June 2024, Ripple completed the purchase of Standard Custody & Trust Co., a New York-regulated crypto custodian.
Gaining an NYDFS-regulated custodian gave Ripple coveted licenses and a secure platform to hold digital assets on behalf of institutional clients. It also brought on Standard’s CEO, Jack McDonald, who now oversees Ripple’s stablecoin initiatives – a strategic personnel move as much as a business one.
Going further back, in May 2023 Ripple made its first headline acquisition by buying Metaco, a Swiss provider of crypto custody and tokenization technology, for $250 million.
That move was aimed at integrating cutting-edge custody solutions into Ripple’s offerings, ensuring institutions have a safe way to store the crypto assets they use on Ripple’s network. (Ripple even eyed the trust business: it agreed to acquire Nevada-based Fortress Trust in late 2023, though that deal was reportedly scrapped after due diligence issues – a rare speed bump in Ripple’s otherwise breakneck expansion.)
All told, Ripple’s shopping spree has been about building a comprehensive crypto finance ecosystem under one roof. With payments (Rail), custody (Metaco, Standard Custody), liquidity and trading (Hidden Road), and now corporate treasury tools (GTreasury), Ripple is assembling the functional equivalent of a traditional financial institution, but optimized for blockchain-based assets.
This approach stands in contrast to many crypto companies that focused on a single niche or awaited regulatory clarity. Ripple, flush with cash – bolstered by its XRP holdings and a landmark legal victory against the SEC that provided clarity for its business – is betting that owning and integrating these diverse capabilities will position it a step ahead of both crypto competitors and possibly even some banks. Industry observers note that it’s highly unusual for a private fintech company to make acquisitions of this scale and frequency.
By comparison, Ripple’s deals (which cumulatively exceed $2.5 billion) rival the investments of some mid-sized banks. The company’s leaders argue that these investments are necessary to legitimize crypto in the eyes of institutional clients.
Each acquisition brought with it not just technology and customers, but often regulatory licenses or charters that help Ripple operate in regulated markets. For example, Hidden Road’s brokerage licenses and Standard Custody’s trust charter extend Ripple’s regulatory perimeter, allowing it to offer services that many crypto startups could not. Ripple appears to be crafting a new hybrid model: part crypto-network operator, part Wall Street firm.
What It Means for XRP: A Token’s New Role
These bold moves have naturally raised the question: What do they mean for XRP, the digital asset at the core of Ripple’s ecosystem? XRP was originally created as a bridge currency for cross-border payments, and for years its value has been driven largely by speculative trading and Ripple’s legal fortunes.
Now, Ripple’s evolving strategy hints at an expanded, more utilitarian role for XRP – one tied to the vast flows of institutional finance rather than just retail crypto speculation.
If Ripple Prime and RLUSD succeed, much of the $3 trillion in annual transactions that Hidden Road handles could gradually tap into the XRP Ledger for settlement.
In theory, that means XRP could be used to settle foreign exchange trades, swaps, or other assets at lightning speed, instead of relying on slow bank wires or keeping idle capital parked at clearinghouses.
Greater usage in real, volume-heavy transactions would underscore XRP’s utility and potentially drive more demand for the token as a bridge asset (for example, converting between RLUSD and other currencies or crypto assets on Ripple’s network).
So far, the market has reacted with guarded optimism. In the week the Hidden Road acquisition was finalized, XRP’s price jumped about 8%, briefly trading around $2.50. Traders seemed to welcome the move as a positive development, possibly anticipating new use cases for XRP. However, the price action has been far from explosive.
XRP continues to trade in the lower single-digit dollars, well below its all-time high, even as Ripple racks up high-profile wins. Some analysts interpret this lack of drastic appreciation as a sign of consolidation – or even a deliberate strategy by Ripple. In the view of one crypto analyst (known by the pseudonym Crypto Levi), XRP’s muted price is “not a sign of weakness but rather a strategic move.” He argues that Ripple might prefer XRP to stay under the radar while the company builds out its infrastructure, avoiding speculative excess until the groundwork is laid.
“XRP at $2 isn’t undervalued – it’s deliberately suppressed,” Levi suggested, positing that once Ripple’s grand strategy is fully in place, a revaluation could happen swiftly rather than gradually.
This is of course one bullish viewpoint, and it’s not uncommon in crypto circles to hear grand predictions. More measured voices in the industry simply note that real utility takes time to translate into market value. The coming year will test whether institutional adoption of XRP’s network can create sustained upward pressure on the token’s price, or whether competition and regulatory hurdles limit its upside.
Ripple’s executives are careful to frame XRP’s future in terms of utility, not just price.
By tying XRP into Ripple Prime’s services, they aim to make the token part of the financial plumbing – so banks and funds might use XRP invisibly in the background to settle trades or manage liquidity, even if retail traders aren’t directly involved.
“For XRP, it means becoming a critical piece of that plumbing, not just a speculative asset,” Garlinghouse emphasized when discussing the Hidden Road deal. The company’s long-term bet is that if XRP powers significant volumes of real transactions, its value will eventually reflect the demand for those transactions. We’re already seeing hints of this: Ripple’s stablecoin initiative with RLUSD could amplify XRP’s role, since a thriving RLUSD requires efficient bridges to other currencies – a role XRP can play on the XRP Ledger. Additionally, as Ripple forges partnerships with banks and custodians (like BNY Mellon for RLUSD reserves), it potentially paves a smoother path for institutions to hold and use XRP down the line.
Still, competition in the crypto space remains fierce. Other networks and stablecoins are vying to be the go-to settlement layers for traditional finance.
And while Ripple has a head start with its acquisitions, it now faces the challenge of integrating them and proving that blockchain efficiencies can meaningfully improve on legacy systems. If XRP is to appreciate significantly, it will likely need to show that it can handle large-scale flows with speed, cost savings, and reliability – and that those advantages matter enough for big institutions to notice.
Conclusion: Bridging Two Financial Worlds
Ripple’s recent actions amount to a bold experiment: Can a crypto-native company reinvent itself as an institutional financial heavyweight without losing the innovative spark of blockchain technology?
By buying up a prime broker, a stablecoin platform, custodians, and more, Ripple is effectively constructing a bridge between the Wild West of crypto and the established highways of global finance.
It’s a high-stakes gambit.
If successful, Ripple won’t just have secured new revenue streams – it could fundamentally reshape how money moves around the world, bringing the efficiency of crypto rails into mainstream use.
A trade executed via Ripple Prime might settle in seconds through XRP and RLUSD, where previously it took days through correspondent banks. An American company’s treasury department could manage crypto liquidity alongside fiat in a single interface. An investment fund could custody assets with Ripple’s platforms knowing they’re regulatory-compliant. These scenarios illustrate why Ripple’s allies tout its trajectory as transformative.
There are, of course, no guarantees.
Ripple must now deliver on the promise of these acquisitions, integrate diverse businesses and cultures, and satisfy regulators’ and clients’ expectations. Traditional finance giants will be watching closely – some with skepticism, others perhaps with an eye toward collaboration.