Ripple raises $275 million to accelerate prime broker business expansion

Ripple raised US$275 million through additional senior notes to expand its U.S. brokerage business

Ripple Prime, a subsidiary of Ripple, successfully raised US$275 million through additional senior unsecured notes. The funds will be used to support the expansion of the brokerage business in the United States in financing, clearing and other financial services.

Summary

Ripple Prime raised $275 million through a private offering of senior unsecured notes to institutional investors. The proceeds will be used to support the expansion of Ripple's prime brokerage, financing and multi-asset clearing businesses in the United States. Prior to the financing, Ripple received a $200 million credit line from a fund managed by Neuberger Berman in May this year. Ripple built its main brokerage business by acquiring Hidden Road for $1.25 billion.

Ripple said that these senior unsecured notes were issued by its non-bank prime brokerage subsidiary, Ripple Prime, and that private placement attracted institutional investors from global financial markets. Proceeds from the issuance will be used to support the expansion of Ripple Prime's financing, clearing and brokerage businesses in the United States. Ripple did not disclose the maturity of the notes, coupon rates or the identities of participating investors.

Noel Kimmel, President of Ripple Prime, said investor participation reflects "confidence in our long-term vision of the increasing integration of traditional assets and digital asset financial infrastructure."

The financing adds a new source of capital to Ripple's brokerage business through its $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, after the company received a separate $200 million credit line earlier this year.

Ripple Prime obtains new capital for U.S. expansion

Ripple Prime's business covers digital assets and traditional markets, providing institutional clients with clearing, financing and trading services covering areas such as cryptocurrency, foreign exchange, derivatives, swaps and fixed income. The business was included through Ripple's acquisition of Hidden Road announced in April 2025 and completed in October of the same year. Ripple subsequently renamed the business Ripple Prime, juxtaposing its payments, custody and stablecoin businesses, creating a prime brokerage business unit.

Hidden Road had processed approximately US$3 trillion in annual liquidations for more than 300 institutional clients before its integration with Ripple. The brokerage business serves hedge funds, proprietary trading firms and liquidity providers, who require financing, clearing and settlement services across multiple asset classes.

As part of the transaction, Ripple completed its acquisition of Hidden Road in October 2025, having previously agreed to acquire the company for US$1.25 billion earlier that year. The deal gives Ripple a global multi-asset master broker and extends its business beyond its existing payments and digital asset infrastructure.

Ripple has since integrated some blockchain products into the brokerage business. Ripple USD (RLUSD) can be used as collateral within Ripple Prime, and the company also revealed plans to migrate some post-transaction activities to XRP Ledger.

The brokerage business's presence in the United States began to expand before Ripple completed the acquisition. Hidden Road obtained a broker-dealer license from the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in April 2025, allowing it to provide additional prime brokerage, clearing and financing services for fixed-income assets to institutional clients. A month later, the company launched an over-the-counter cash-settled cryptocurrency swap product for U.S. institutional investors through its British entity regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Ripple Prime has raised $475 million since May.

The $275 million note issued on Tuesday is another fundraising after another financing transaction completed three months ago. Ripple Prime received a $200 million credit line in May from a fund managed by Neuberger Berman, adding additional lending capacity to institutional clients in the brokerage business. This amount is arranged by Neuberger Berman's professional financial group and can be withdrawn based on the customer's borrowing needs. Ripple said at the time that the funds would be used to support margin services covering digital assets, stocks, fixed income and foreign exchange.

Combined with the latest note issuance, the two deals have provided Ripple Prime with up to $475 million in new financing since May, although the two have different structural uses. Neuberger Berman's agreement provides lending capabilities linked to customer needs, while Tuesday's deal involved Ripple Prime issuing senior unsecured debt to institutional investors.

Prime brokerage requires capital because clients can borrow for positions, finance transactions, and use collateral in multiple markets. Ripple Prime also offers a cross-margin service that allows eligible institutional customers to offset exposure between different positions without having to fund each transaction separately.

As the business expands, the brokerage business continues to strengthen its connectivity to traditional market infrastructure. A review of Ripple Prime shows that the business entered the National Securities Clearing Corporation's Participant Directory in March this year and participated in the Depository, Trust and Clearing Corporation's tokenization working group. Its NSCC participation allows the brokerage business to access U.S. securities clearing infrastructure, although the directory itself does not mean that transactions are settled using XRP or XRP Ledger.

RLUSD becomes part of Ripple's institutional financial system

While expanding its brokerage business, Ripple has also expanded the application of RLUSD, positioning this dollar-backed stablecoin as an institutional payment, trading and collateral use tool. In July this year, the company launched the Ripple Mint platform, which aims to provide institutions with tools to cast, redeem and manage RLUSD. Ripple said the product provides companies with the infrastructure to integrate stablecoins into treasury, payments and other financial businesses.

Since its launch in December 2024, the circulation of RLUSD has increased significantly. According to CoinGecko data, the market value of the stablecoin was approximately US$1.76 billion at the time of its last inspection. On-chain activity has also increased. A report released on June 30 by Ripple-backed Evernorth showed that since RLUSD was publicly released, its trading volume on XRP Ledger has exceeded $2.5 billion. Evernorth said RLUSD's share of XRP Ledger transactions has increased from less than 1% to approximately 12% in 2026. The company reported that the RLUSD/XRP trading pair alone processed approximately $900 million in six months.

Ripple Prime is an institutional use case for stablecoins because customers can use RLUSD as collateral in their brokerage business. Ripple said integrating stablecoins with prime brokerage services would allow customers to manage collateral for digital and traditional assets on the same platform. At the same time, the company is also adding other distribution channels for RLUSD. In July this year, Ripple joined the x402 Foundation as a founding member, supporting payments using XRP and RLUSD through the open x402 protocol.

Ripple builds financial services system through acquisitions

The note issuance also follows a number of large acquisitions by Ripple that have brought Ripple into areas beyond its original blockchain payments business. The $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road announced in April 2025 is the largest of these. Ripple also acquired treasury management software provider GTreasury for US$1 billion in October 2025, and acquired payment infrastructure company Rail for US$200 million in August of the same year.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in January that after completing a series of transactions in 2025, the company is focusing on integrating acquired businesses. For Ripple Prime, the acquisition of Hidden Road gives the company a mature broker with institutional clients and access to traditional financial markets. Ripple then integrated its stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure into parts of the business, while providing additional capital for customer financing.

The latest $275 million private equity funding provides another source of funding for Ripple Prime. Ripple said the proceeds will be used to continue to expand prime brokerage, financing and multi-asset clearing services in the United States.