- Ripple’s US$1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road will integrate the XRP Ledger for post-trade settlements across all prime brokerage services, potentially handling massive daily volumes exceeding US$10 billion.
- The integration aims to reduce settlement times from 24 hours to just 3-5 seconds, making XRPL an attractive solution for institutional DeFi use cases.
- Hidden Road CEO Marc Asch indicated that Ripple’s financial backing will enable expansion to more customers, new products and additional markets and asset classes.
- Despite the significant news, XRP’s price has not immediately reacted, trading down 12% monthly at US$2.08, though analysts remain bullish on long-term prospects as institutional demand potentially increases.
Cassie Craddock, the Managing Director for Ripple UK and Europe, recently confirmed that new Ripple-acquisition Hidden Road will use the XRP Ledger (XRPL) for its post-trade settlements.
This likely means the Ledger will be involved in settling trades and data and will need to handle massive daily volumes of US$10 billion (AU15.5 billion) and upwards.
Craddock said:
The XRP Ledger will be used as post-trade for all of Hidden Road’s prime brokerage services.
Cassie Craddock, the Managing Director for Ripple UK and EuropeShe added that Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD will be used as “collateral to enable the bridging of digital assets to TradFi”.
Related: Coinbase Launches CFTC-Regulated XRP Futures for US Traders
Move a ‘Defining Moment’, Says CTO Schwartz
Ripple announced the US$1.25 billion (AU$1.94 billion) Hidden Road takeover in early April, with David Schwartz, the company’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), calling it a “defining moment”.
It is definitely a major move for Ripple into prime brokerage, giving it the tools to serve institutional clients across trading, clearing and custody – all powered by its blockchain infrastructure.
Hidden Road is one of the fastest growing prime brokers but is expected to continue to grow with substantial cash injections by Ripple.
Hidden Road CEO Marc Asch said that, with Ripple’s deep pockets, they can “expand capacity to more customers, new products, and additional markets and asset classes”.
The use of XRPL is expected to bring settlement times for Hidden Road down from an average 24 hours to mere seconds, with XRPL settlement times around 3-5 seconds. This could make the XRPL a very attractive solution for institutional DeFi use cases.
XRP Price Hasn’t Reacted to News, Yet
The price of XRP did not initially react to the news, which came as global markets struggled with Trump’s tariff policies – an ongoing issue dominating headlines. XRP is down on the monthly timeframe by 12%, currently trading at US$2.08 (AU$3.23).
Yet, long-term, analysts are mostly bullish. Jake Claver, Managing Director at Digital Ascension Group, said the Hidden Road merge would significantly increase demand for XRP:
What happens when just a fraction of that $10 billion daily volume starts settling through XRP? Demand skyrockets.
Jake Claver, Managing Director at Digital Ascension GroupHowever, the effects will be gradual and not sudden – meaning a moonshot is not likely anytime soon.
Related: New Filing Reveals: These Crypto Heavyweights Donated to Trump’s 2024 Inauguration
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