Ripple acquired Hidden Road, a non-bank prime brokerage firm, for approximately $1.25 billion in 2025, completing the deal on October 24, 2025. The company has since renamed the business Ripple Prime and begun financing leveraged stock exchange-traded funds through total return swaps.
The move puts Ripple into a business long dominated by major banks: clearing trades, financing investment positions and handling transactions for investment firms. Tighter capital and risk rules have created room for non-bank firms including Ripple Prime, Jane Street and Clear Street.
Marc Asch founded Hidden Road in 2018. The London-headquartered company grew into a firm handling trades and financing across stocks, bonds, currencies and digital assets, serving over 300 clients and clearing roughly $3 trillion annually as of 2024. Asch, a former hedge fund executive at SAC Capital and Point72, remains chief executive of Ripple Prime and reports to Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse.
The acquisition was paid for mostly with cash, XRP and stock. Ripple is also integrating its RLUSD stablecoin to support cross-margining between digital assets and traditional markets. Ripple has more than a decade of experience and 60+ regulatory licenses.
Ripple Prime now offers prime brokerage, clearing and financing across traditional and digital asset markets. The company is seeking a share of a US leveraged-ETF market with 593 funds holding more than $256 billion in assets, including 426 funds tied to individual stocks.
Its financing comes with risks. Leveraged ETFs reset their market exposure every day, and sharp moves in the underlying stocks can expose a financing firm when a fund’s assets no longer cover losses.
One example is the Tradr 2X Long SNDK Daily ETF, which pays Ripple the overnight bank funding rate plus four percentage points. At prevailing levels, that equates to an annualised rate of roughly 8%.
In August, Ripple Prime raised $275 million through a senior note offering to expand its prime brokerage, financing and multi-asset clearing operations. After the debt offering, Ripple held more than $1 billion in regulatory net capital.
Brevan Howard, a global investment manager with about $35 billion in assets, has expanded an agreement giving it access to Ripple Prime’s services in traditional and digital markets. Brevan Howard-affiliated funds also joined a $500 million investment in Ripple in 2025, which valued the company at $40 billion.
The investment manager serves clients including sovereign wealth funds, corporate and public pension plans, foundations and endowments. Alan McGroarty, Brevan Howard’s chief operating officer, said: “As digital and traditional markets become more interconnected, the need for institutional-quality digital asset infrastructure that enables a seamless experience for investors is only growing.”
For Ripple, the acquisition gives a cryptocurrency company a route into the fee-paying machinery of Wall Street. For Asch, it means leading the enlarged firm as it competes with banks and non-bank rivals for leveraged-ETF financing and clearing business.
Comments (0)