Hidden Road will use Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin as collateral for all of its core brokerage products and will move its post-trade operations to the XRP Ledger blockchain, according to the company’s statement.
Ripple also sees potential for a cost and liquidity optimization operation in its cross-border payment service Ripple Payments and providing custody services to Hidden Road clients.
“This is by far our biggest deal,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said. “If we want the crypto industry to continue to become more institutionally friendly, having a robust infrastructure that allows these players to enter this space and do so easily is a very big deal.”
San Francisco-based Ripple launched its RLUSD stablecoin in December, and the token now has a market cap of just under $300 million, according to data compiled by CoinMarketCap.
Ripple participated in Hidden Road’s Series B funding round and is a client of the company’s platform. The deal has been in development for the past few months and is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, according to Garlinghouse.
“Hidden Road being part of Ripple gives them access to a very strong and large balance sheet that will fundamentally change their ability to serve demand,” Garlinghouse said, adding that going public is not a priority for Ripple for at least the next year or so.
Source: Bloomberg
