Ripple is expanding its institutional footprint—this time on home turf. The fintech firm, best known for its blockchain-based payments network and the XRP token, has officially launched digital asset spot prime brokerage services for U.S. institutional clients, marking a notable evolution in its post-acquisition strategy.

The move follows Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road, a multi-asset prime brokerage firm with the kind of regulatory licenses and infrastructure that Ripple needed to deepen its U.S. market reach. The integration of those capabilities under the new Ripple Prime banner effectively allows institutions to trade, settle, and manage foreign exchange (FX), digital assets, derivatives, swaps, and fixed income instruments—all through one unified platform.

A Broader Institutional Play

For Ripple, this isn’t just about adding another service. It’s a play to become a one-stop shop for institutional crypto trading in the U.S.—a space that’s been largely dominated by players like Coinbase Prime, Galaxy, and FalconX. By combining Hidden Road’s brokerage framework with Ripple’s deep liquidity and OTC (over-the-counter) infrastructure, Ripple Prime now offers U.S. institutions seamless access to dozens of digital assets, including XRP and its own U.S. dollar stablecoin, RLUSD.

“The launch of OTC spot execution capabilities complements our existing suite of OTC and cleared derivatives services,” said Michael Higgins, International CEO at Ripple Prime, adding that the rollout “positions us to provide U.S. institutions with a comprehensive offering to suit their trading strategies and needs.”

Cross-Margining: Efficiency Meets Risk Management

One of the headline features of Ripple’s U.S. prime brokerage offering is cross-margining. Clients can now offset margin requirements across their portfolios—combining OTC spot trades, swaps, and even CME-listed futures and options. This approach mirrors what traditional prime brokers in equities and FX already offer, giving institutional crypto investors a familiar, capital-efficient way to manage exposure across assets.

That’s a critical advantage as regulatory clarity around digital assets continues to evolve. For many institutional traders, the ability to manage crypto alongside traditional markets under one umbrella could be a major draw—especially as liquidity fragments across exchanges and platforms.

A Strategic Move in a Tight Market

Ripple’s entry into the U.S. prime brokerage scene comes amid a renewed push among fintech and crypto firms to capture institutional flow. Firms like BitGo, Anchorage Digital, and Coinbase Prime have all been jockeying to dominate the post-FTX landscape, where trust, compliance, and capital efficiency matter more than ever.

Ripple’s combination of regulatory licenses, FX capabilities, and access to both traditional and digital markets gives it a potentially unique edge. In a sense, Ripple Prime is positioning itself as a bridge between the worlds of crypto-native liquidity and legacy financial infrastructure—something institutions have been quietly demanding since the 2022 market shakeout.

While Ripple still faces ongoing scrutiny and competition in the U.S. regulatory landscape, this launch signals confidence—and a clear commitment to serving the institutional side of digital finance, not just payments or remittances.