The Ripple company, which is responsible for issuing the XRP (XRP) cryptocurrency and a leader in digital assets infrastructure for financial institutions, announced on Tuesday (8) the acquisition of Hidden Road for US$ 1.25 billion, in one of the largest transactions ever made in the cryptocurrency sector.
With the acquisition, Ripple becomes the first cryptocurrency company to own and operate a global multi-asset prime brokerage, according to the statement.
Known as a brokerage focused on financial institutions, Hidden Road has been recognized for its rapid growth.
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“We are at a turning point for the next phase of digital asset adoption – the U.S. market is effectively open for the first time due to the former SEC’s regulatory overreach coming to an end, and the market is maturing to meet the needs of traditional finance,” stated Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO.
Marc Asch, founder and CEO of Hidden Road, also commented on the agreement: “With new resources, licenses, and additional venture capital, this agreement will unlock significant growth in Hidden Road’s business, allowing us to expand capacity for our client base, expand into new products, and serve more markets and asset classes”.
Technological integration with Ripple
The acquisition also strengthens Ripple USD (RLUSD)’s position as an enterprise-level dollar-backed stablecoin with practical utility. Still, according to the statement, Hidden Road is expected to use RLUSD as collateral in its brokerage products.
In turn, Hidden Road will shift its post-trading activity to XRPL (XRP Ledger) to streamline operations and reduce costs, demonstrating the potential of this technology as the preferred blockchain for institutional decentralized finance (DeFi).
With over a decade of experience in the digital asset sector and more than 60 regulatory licenses and registrations in various jurisdictions, Ripple is well positioned to provide the essential services that financial institutions need to tokenize, store, trade, and move digital assets.
The agreement between the companies, which already had previous business relationships, is expected to be completed in the coming months, subject to regulatory approvals.
Fonte: Money Times
