- According to a post by John Deaton, Ripple acquiring Hidden Road may be part of its plan to capture a share of the $16 trillion institutional finance market.
- Over the past few years, Ripple has poured billions into strengthening its custody services, picking up Metaco in 2023 and Standard Custody in June 2024.
Chamath Palihapitiya, the CEO of Social Capital, highlighted several trends that he believes can accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrency. Ripple’s early acquisition moves were among those mentioned on the X post. In 2023, Ripple took a major step forward by acquiring Metaco, a Swiss firm recognized for providing top-quality digital asset infrastructure to institutions, in a $250 million deal. This acquisition gave Ripple a solid foundation to offer full, end-to-end solutions for financial institutions moving into the blockchain space.
Building on Chamath’s remarks, former U.S. Senate candidate and legal voice in the crypto industry John Deaton echoed Palihapitiya’s statement. However, Deaton drew attention to Ripple’s most recent acquisition. For context, on April 8, Crypto News Flash reported that Ripple acquired Hidden Road, a leading prime crypto brokerage firm, for $1.25 billion that handles over $3T annually across 300+ institutional clients.
The XRP lawyer described Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road as “the best example of the convergence of TradFi and DeFi in all of crypto.” His statement highlights the growing belief that Ripple is positioning itself at the forefront of bridging traditional finance systems with decentralized blockchain innovations.
Ripple’s ambitions do not end there. Ripple finalized its acquisition of Standard Custody & Trust Company on June 11, 2024, adding a New York-regulated trust company to its growing portfolio.
The Rise of Ripple Custody
“Ripple’s acquisition integrates blockchain infrastructure into institutional trading, merging DeFi’s efficiency with TradFi’s scale and client base,” said Deaton. With the launch of Ripple Custody, the company is making a smart play, offering custody services alongside its payment and stablecoin solutions, all under one roof.
It’s aiming to become the go-to platform for financial institutions ready to embrace blockchain technology. John Deaton suggests there’s a very specific reason for Ripple’s aggressive move into custody services: According to Boston Consulting Group, the custody market is projected to surpass $16 trillion in assets by 2030.
With this in mind, Ripple’s vision is clear: to leverage its custody infrastructure for tokenization-as-a-service. This will enable institutions and banks to tokenize real-world assets like stocks, bonds, and property on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), with Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD being significant in facilitating the swaps to occur.
Deaton points out that Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse seems to be “making up for lost time” after years of being bogged down by regulatory battles with the SEC. On that front, CNF recently reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit agreed to a joint request from Ripple Labs and the SEC to pause their ongoing appeal for 60 days.
XRP is gaining some positive momentum, trading at $2.34, up 6.47% over the past 24 hours.
