Ripple CEO Garlinghouse Unveils $1.25B Hidden Road Expansion — Can XRP Finally Break the $2 Wall?

Ripple has made headlines again as it has finalised one of the biggest purchases in the crypto industry history. This company has acquired the prime broker, Hidden Road, to expand its business into a new sector. This acquisition cost Ripple $1.25; however, it gives it access to various new customer bases. This is because this international broker provides features like clearing, prime brokerage and enabling access to foreign exchange. Additionally, this platform also provided users with digital assets, swaps, fixed income, and derivatives. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has also commented on this acquisition.

What Makes Ripple’s Payment System Better?

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse gave a statement related to the recent development in an X post, from his official account. The Ripple CEO talked about how this investment can connect Ripple to one of the biggest markets in the world. He continued to say that nowadays many businesses, like hedge funds and market makers, use prime brokers as trusted intermediaries. He also mentions that Hidden Road has transferred over 3 trillion for its various clients, like Ripple itself. 

Today, @Ripple announced the acquisition of Hidden Road for $1.25B, one of the largest deals ever in the crypto space. But the price tag isn’t what’s most important – it’s that this deal marks a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for crypto to access the largest and most trusted…

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) April 8, 2025

Additionally, he also brought up the efficiency of XRP and the payment system built on this asset. He specified that the speed and cost of the Ripple payment system are much better than traditional ones. For processing part of transactions, the Hidden Road firm will also be using XPRL rails. Moreover, he explained that they will be using Ripple RLUSD as collateral for all brokerage services. As such, based on his statement, XRP and the XRP Ledger will see more traffic, also increasing revenue and adoption.

Why Is Hidden Road Using the XPRL Payment Network?

With this development, Hidden Road will be migrating all post-trade transactions to the Ripple payment network XPRL. Marc Asch, the founder and CEO of Hidden Road, also commented on this development. 

With new resources, licenses, and added risk capital, this deal will unlock significant growth in Hidden Road’s business, allowing us to increase capacity to our customer base, expand into new products, and service more markets and asset classes. Together with Ripple, we’re bringing the same level of trust and reliability that institutional clients are accustomed to in traditional markets, designed and optimized for a digital world.

How Can Crypto Grow Beyond Its Current Limits?

As the crypto industry grows, it will hit a soft ceiling for growth and adoption. However, by entering the traditional sector and crypto, this problem can be solved, entering the next gen of crypto. This is why prime brokers are the perfect choice, as they present the traditional legitimacy and confidence. As such, by integrating blockchain and crypto in these platforms, we can connect decentralised finance and traditional clients. Additionally, this expansion creates an opportunity to establish Ripple RLUSD as institutional currency. This will also add utility to the Ripple stablecoin and make it the first stablecoin used for cross-margining.

Can XRP Break the $2 Resistance Soon?

Such an increase in network activity and utility can help the XRP price as well. This is because, as this development unfolds, XRP price stands at $1.99, struggling to break above the $2 resistance. The weekly and monthly performance of XRP has been disappointing as well, recording 4.57% and 9.30% decreases, respectively. Additionally, with Ripple stablecoin reaching a $300 million market cap before such utilities, the RLUSD is set to exponentially grow as well. As such, with such developments and more partnerships on the way, the Ripple payment system is set to dominate the market.