April 8 (Reuters) - Ripple said on Tuesday it will buy

multi-asset prime broker Hidden Road in a $1.25 billion deal,

making it one of the largest acquisitions by the crypto company.

This is the second billion-dollar-plus deal involving a

crypto company this year, as digital assets such as bitcoin gain

more prominence under U.S. President Donald Trump, who has

promised to be the "crypto president".

"The U.S. market is effectively open for the first time due

to the regulatory overhang of the former SEC coming to an end,

and the market is maturing to address the needs of traditional

finance," Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said.

Prime brokers help in the day-to-day operations of clearing,

securities lending, leveraged trade execution, among others.

Large hedge funds and institutional investors usually avail

these services.

Hidden Road clears $3 trillion annually across markets with

over 300 institutional clients. The deal will allow the Hidden

Road to expand exponentially using Ripple's balance sheet and

become the largest non-bank prime broker globally, the crypto

company said.

Ripple will also become the only crypto company to own and

operate a global multi-asset prime broker due to the deal, which

is expected to close in the coming months, it said.

The acquisition also enhances Ripple USD's (RLUSD) utility

as Hidden Road uses the stablecoin as collateral across its

prime brokerage products.

Ripple launched RLUSD, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S.

dollar, last year, as it sought to disrupt the market dominated

by Tether and USD Coin.