- Ripple's Monica Long outlined the benefits of the Hidden Road deal.
- She spoke at Paris Blockchain week.
Ripple says it acquired the prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion.
The deal, revealed by Monica Long, the crypto firm’s president, will see Hidden Road integrate Ripple’s new stablecoin called RLUSD across its business.
Launched in December 2024, RLUSD has grown to be worth almost $300 million, according CoinGecko.
Tether, the industry’s largest stablecoin issuer at $144 billion, is 480 times larger. Circle’s stablecoin, the second largest, is 200 times bigger.
Long expects the splashy acquisition of London-based Hidden Road will help close that gap.
“This is an order of magnitude larger in terms of volume opportunity,” Long said on stage at Paris Blockchain Week on Tuesday. “Hidden Roads clears $3 trillion a year for its clients.”
By using RLUSD as a collateral across Hidden Road’s suite of brokerage services, Ripple is banking on a different variety of user than its heavyweight counterparts to help grow its dollar-pegged cryptocurrency.
“We have our sites set on use cases for RLUSD that makes sense for institutions,” Long said.
Ripple’s coffers, primarily held in the cryptocurrency XRP, have soared the last quarter and boosted the company’s acquisition hunt.
As of its latest financial attestation in January, the firm holds more than $82 billion in XRP tokens, the majority of which are held in escrow.
And as the company’s legal concerns in the US clear — the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its lawsuit against Ripple in March — it’s turned its attention to growth via acquisitions.
A spokesperson told DL News in January: “We have been active in the mergers and acquisitions space and expect to be more active moving forward.
Over the last two years, Ripple has acquired crypto custody firms Metaco for $250 million and Standard Custody for an undisclosed amount, but the Hidden Roads acquisition is its biggest ever.
The move to buy up other companies also offers Ripple an alternative growth strategy.
Mentioned in the same breath as buzzy crypto listings, Long addressed lingering IPO rumours on Tuesday.
“IPO makes more sense for a company where you’re looking for more liquidity,” she said.
“That’s not our constraint to growth right now, so we’re more focused on growing the business as a private company and M&A and organically and organically.”