On April 8, Ripple announced the acquisition of Hidden Road for $1.25 billion in what it described as one of the largest deals ever in the crypto space.

Ripple also claimed that with the acquisition, it became the first crypto company to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker. Hidden Road clears $3 trillion annually across markets with over 300 institutional clients.

Large prime brokers help in the day-to-day operations of clearing, securities lending, and leveraged trade execution, among others, for large hedge funds and institutional investors.

“But the price tag isn’t what’s most important,” said CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who added, “It’s that this deal marks a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for crypto to access the largest and most trusted traditional markets, and vice versa.”

Inflection Point for Crypto Adoption

Garlinghouse explained that this is the capital and activity “that will tap into XRP and the XRP Ledger’s bread-and-butter – instant, efficient, scalable and low-cost movement of value.”

He added that instead of waiting for 24 hours to settle trades through fiat rails, Hidden Road will be using XRPL for clearing a portion of trades. It will also use RLUSD, the firm’s stablecoin, as collateral across its prime brokerage services, including cross-asset crypto and traditional instrument trades, he said.

“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.”

Today, @Ripple announced the acquisition of Hidden Road for $1.25B, one of the largest deals ever in the crypto space. But the price tag isn’t what’s most important – it’s that this deal marks a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for crypto to access the largest and most trusted…

Garlinghouse also said that we are at an “inflection point” for the next phase of crypto asset adoption, adding that the US market is “effectively open for the first time due to the regulatory overhang of the former SEC coming to an end.”

However, the company has now shelved its initial public offering ambitions.

XRP Price Tanks

Ripple’s native token, XRP, has tanked around 10% over the past 12 hours despite the announcement. However, this is attributed to a wider crypto market slump as investors flee from high-risk assets amid economic concerns exacerbated by Donald Trump’s global trade war.

The asset fell from an intraday high of just under $2 to $1.73 during the Wednesday morning Asian trading session as crypto markets turned red again.

XRP has lost almost 50% since its mid-January all-time high equalling surge, but it remains one of the better-performing digital assets this year.

The wider crypto market was down more than 7% on the day as Trump’s tariffs, including a hefty 104% on China, went live on Wednesday.