Ripple is making a major push into institutional finance with a $1.25 billion acquisition of prime brokerage firm Hidden Road, a deal that could significantly influence future demand for XRP.
Announced on April 8, the deal marks one of the largest in the crypto space to date and will make Ripple the first crypto firm to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker.
By folding in Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin and tapping into the XRP Ledger for faster settlement, the acquisition could significantly boost XRP’s real-world use and with it, long-term demand.
How Ripple’s Hidden Road acquisition could impact XRP demand
Jake Claver, Managing Director of Digital Ascension Group, broke down the significance of Ripple’s $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road in a recent post on X.
Hidden Road serves over 300 institutional clients and handles $10 billion in trades daily. These trades will now be settled on the XRP Ledger, meaning financial giants such as hedge funds and market makers will require XRP to complete transactions. Even a modest shift of this daily volume to the XRPL could drive substantial demand for XRP.
Each settlement on the XRPL requires XRP, while the RLUSD stablecoin will be introduced as collateral in brokerage operations. This creates a unified ecosystem where both XRP and RLUSD are embedded into core institutional workflows.
This makes RLUSD the first stablecoin enabling cross-margining between digital assets and traditional markets. As institutional clients start using XRP and RLUSD to reduce costs and increase transaction efficiency, demand for both assets will rise in tandem.
With a $3 trillion-per-year pipeline now connected to the XRP ecosystem, Ripple has effectively laid the groundwork for mass institutional integration. As Claver puts it, the acquisition is a structural shift that could reshape the utility and valuation of XRP for years to come.
Despite the optimism, XRP was trading at $1.83, down 8% in the past 24 hours and recording a broader weekly loss of 14%.
Featured image from Shutterstock
