Ripple acquires Hidden Road, a crypto-friendly major broker for $1.25 billion

PANews reported on April 8 that crypto payment company Ripple acquired major brokerage company Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, aiming to expand its services to institutional investors, according to Fortune Magazine. CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the acquisition represents Ripple's efforts to integrate a wider range of services to attract large organizations. "Ripple needs to make sure we have the right infrastructure to attract and expand to a larger community of institutions," he said. The deal is mainly in the form of cash, XRP and stock. The acquisition will be completed in the next few months after regulatory approval, and Hidden Road founder Marc Asch will continue to serve as head of Ripple's first-tier brokerage.

As part of the deal, Ripple will “inject billions of dollars of capital to provide instant scale and meet the needs of Hidden Road’s first-tier brokerage business,” the company said in a statement. The deal will benefit Ripple as Hidden Road needs to integrate some of the company's products for further promotion. Garlinghouse said the major broker will integrate Ripple's stablecoin RLUSD as collateral for its major brokerage products and explore using XRP underlying blockchain XRP Ledger to "improve settlement efficiency."