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Today's News Recap
Malware Campaign - North Korean Lazarus Group used shell companies to target crypto developers with malware, violating sanctions.
Dragonchain Dissmisal - SEC seeks to dismiss Dragonchain securities lawsuit amid Crypto Task Force developments.
Policy Shift - Federal Reserve reconsiders stance on banks engaging in crypto activities.
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Fundraising Friday
Ripple Makes Its Move
By: Drexel Bakker
Ripple Acquires Hidden Road for $1.25B, Signaling Major Expansion Into Prime Brokerage.
April 21, 2025 - Ripple has officially acquired global prime brokerage firm Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, marking the second-largest acquisition of 2025 and one of the largest acquisitions in the history of digital assets.
The acquisition positions Ripple as a major player in institutional crypto finance, expanding its footprint beyond payments and liquidity services into broker-dealer infrastructure. Hidden Road, recently approved by FINRA as a registered broker-dealer in the U.S., provides institutional access to both traditional and digital asset markets. Its multi-asset prime brokerage platform supports clients across crypto, FX, and securities markets.
A crypto prime brokerage provides institutional clients with unified access to deep liquidity across exchanges, secure custody of digital assets, and margin financing for leveraged trading. It simplifies trade execution and settlement, offers cross-venue collateral management, and mitigates counterparty risk, enabling efficient, large-scale operations in the fragmented crypto market.
According to Ripple’s official statement, the acquisition will enable the company to offer “an end-to-end solution for institutional asset flows” from liquidity provisioning to post-trade settlement, all powered by blockchain infrastructure. Crucially, Ripple confirmed that all of Hidden Road’s post-trade systems will soon run natively on the XRP Ledger.
“This is more than a strategic acquisition, it’s a transformation of market infrastructure,” said Ripple’s head of institutional markets. “By integrating Hidden Road's global prime brokerage capabilities with Ripple's blockchain-native rails, we’re building a full-stack institutional ecosystem.”
Ripple’s acquisition comes at a time when institutional interest in digital assets is accelerating. Hidden Road’s regulatory approvals, including its newly acquired broker-dealer license from FINRA, significantly enhance Ripple’s regulatory positioning and U.S. market access.
For Hidden Road, the deal offers new capabilities built on Ripple’s liquidity network and onchain settlement tools. The firm will continue operating under its current leadership as an independent subsidiary within Ripple’s expanding institutional division.
The acquisition is a strong signal that Ripple is betting big on tokenized finance. By combining a licensed prime broker with its blockchain infrastructure and liquidity solutions, Ripple is positioning itself as a foundational layer for institutional asset flows, well beyond its roots in cross-border payments.
