XRP On The Cusp Of Mega Utility Explosion As Ripple Acquires Hidden Road In $1.25 Billion Deal
Ripple has announced the acquisition of prime brokerage firm Hidden Road for $1.26 billion. The deal will open the crypto payment firm to a new range of traditional markets in its quest for seamless cross-border payments. This year, Ripple has partnered with key firms and institutions to drive adoption.
Ripple Eyes New Possibilities
According to the announcement, the deal, one of the largest in the digital asset space, will boost the expansion of both firms. Ripples subsidiaries will tap into new markets as traditional firms increase their appetite for crypto assets.
Hidden Road clears about $3 trillion annually for top financial institutions and will leverage XRPs Ledger for faster and efficient services. XRPL is notable for its fast and scalable infrastructure in the crypto industry. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse noted that this acquisition is huge for the company adding that the right infrastructure is needed to support traditional firms.
This is the capital and activity that will tap into XRP and the XRP Ledgers bread-and-butter instant, efficient, scalable, and low-cost movement of value. Instead of waiting for <24 hours to settle trades through fiat rails, Hidden Road will be using XRPL for clearing a portion of trades, and most consequentially, using RLUSD as collateral across its prime brokerage services, including cross-asset (crypto and traditional instrument) trades, the company wrote.
Furthermore, the company explained the need to merge traditional and decentralized finance highlighting the pathway of Hidden Roads growth with the backing of Ripples balance sheet. Prime brokers like Hidden Road are huge intermediaries for market markets OTC services and other financial institutions. This deal makes Ripple the first crypto company to own a prime brokerage firm.
Crypto Community Backs Move
Digital asset users expressed delight following the announcement signaling a strong merger between decentralized and traditional finance. Amid the frenzy, crypto executives and analysts highlighted the positive effect of the acquisition on institutional investor inflow. In a nutshell, several traders have tipped institutional funds to fuel the next market uptick.
This move adds to Ripples growing partnerships to foster cross-border partnerships. In the past months, the company has collaborated with central banks and traditional firms globally. At the time of writing, XRP price jumped 2% in hourly trading as bulls attempted to recover previous losses. The asset has dropped alongside the wider market amid heightened sell pressures.
Text source: ZyCrypto
