PANews reported on April 8 that according to Fortune magazine, crypto payment company Ripple acquired major brokerage Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, aiming to expand its services for institutional investors. CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the acquisition represents Ripple's efforts to integrate a wider range of services to attract large institutions. He said: "Ripple needs to ensure that we have the right infrastructure to attract and expand to a larger group of large institutions." The transaction was mainly carried out in the form of cash, XRP and stocks. Subject to regulatory approval, the acquisition will be completed in the next few months, and Hidden Road founder Marc Asch will continue to serve as Ripple's head of primary brokers.

As part of the deal, Ripple will "inject billions of dollars of capital to provide immediate scale and meet the needs of Hidden Road's prime 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 prime broker will integrate the use of Ripple's stablecoin RLUSD as collateral for its prime brokerage products and explore the use of XRP's underlying blockchain XRP Ledger to "improve settlement efficiency."