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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 traditional markets, and vice versa. Prime brokers (along with other key functions historically managed by banks for the most part) like Hidden Road have proven themselves as *the* trusted intermediary for the largest hedge funds, market makers, OTC desks, quant traders and more. Ripple has been a customer of Hidden Road for years, and we know their breadth of expertise firsthand, clearing $3 TRILLION annually for 300+ of the top financial institutions globally. This is the capital and activity that will tap into XRP and the XRP Ledger’s bread-and-butter – instant, efficient, scalable and low cost movement of value. Instead of waiting for <24 hours to settle trades through fiat rails, Hidden Road will be using XRPL for clearing a portion of trades, and most consequentially, using RLUSD as collateral across its prime brokerage services, including cross-asset (crypto and traditional instrument) trades. With this deal and the backing of Ripple’s significant balance sheet, Hidden Road will exponentially expand its capacity to service its pipeline and become the largest non-bank prime broker globally. Ripple and Hidden Road combined are a generational leap forward, ready to truly bring the worlds of traditional and decentralized finance together. ripple.com/ripple-press/ripp…

Some weeks feel like months in crypto...this was one of them. From the @WhiteHouse Crypto Summit to the @CFTC CEO Roundtable and the sheer amount of news announced (hooray for @NatCryptoAssoc!), it’s been quite a few days. There’s been a lot of talk about what this White House has and will prioritize with their crypto agenda - most importantly, regulatory clarity through Congressional action, as well as a BTC reserve & crypto stockpile, support for stablecoin innovation backed by US Treasuries, and more. I was extremely pleased to see the incredible support from this administration. It’s easy to get lost in some of the maxi-induced noise, but there’s so much more to this industry than the infighting and one coin versus another time-wasting rhetoric. We will – as we’ve always done -- continue to champion the need for a level playing field (and it was great to hear others in the room echo this as well!) and for the industry to come together to move much needed legislation forward in the US. An incredible THANK YOU to @realdonaldtrump for opening and welcoming us to the White House (amazing contrast to the the hostility of the Biden administration), @davidsacks47 and @BoHines for a truly historic Summit, and @carolinedpham for hosting us at the CFTC!