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The XRP Ledger: Hidden Road’s Billion-Dollar Upgrade To Revolutionize TradFi

BBG News

In a dazzling reveal on BFM Business, Cassie Craddock, Ripple’s Managing Director for the UK & Europe, tore back the curtain on Ripple’s plans for the XRP Ledger, dropping hints about how it’s about to break into prime brokerage with the elegance of a bear at a ballet. In this performance, Ripple’s recent $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, based in London, plays a starring role. The upcoming Ripple USD-backed stablecoin, RLUSD, is primed to “act as collateral,” a move that Craddock claims “essentially bridges the gap between the digital asset world and traditional finance,” leaving her practically giddy with excitement. Who wouldn’t be excited about mixing crypto with TradFi? 🤑

The XRP Ledger’s Role In This Drama

Craddock detailed how Ripple’s audacious plans extend to Hidden Road’s entire post-trade stack moving onto the XRP Ledger. “The XRP Ledger will handle post-trade for all of Hidden Road’s prime brokerage services,” she said, adding a little *twinkle* of confidence. With settlement finality taking a mere three to five seconds on XRPL—compared to the snooze-worthy 24-hour stretch of traditional finance—Ripple is promising to make old systems feel like dial-up internet while they’re at it. Hidden Road, processing over 50 million transactions a day and clearing more than $10 billion in the same timeframe, is about to face the ultimate performance test for Ripple’s 12-year-old blockchain. No pressure, guys. 😏

Craddock didn’t stop there. She pointed to the wealth of institutional customers Ripple is snatching up. Hidden Road clears about $3 trillion annually across foreign exchange, derivatives, fixed income, and digital assets for a rather exclusive club—300 hedge funds, market makers, and proprietary trading firms. “This captive audience of institutional customers is a juicy portfolio for Ripple,” Craddock remarked. These firms are soon going to benefit from Ripple’s robust payment and custody rails. Oh, and did I mention the *big* advantage of having access to RLUSD as a cross-margin asset? 😏💸

In this glorious game of crypto vs. legacy finance, RLUSD will strut onto the scene as a fully-backed stablecoin to be used in a way that allows Hidden Road’s customers to use it alongside Bitcoin or US Treasuries as collateral. The integration will allow for RLUSD to move natively on the XRPL, enabling customers to pledge capital and settle trades in a single, slick atomic workflow. Sounds like a dream, right? It’s almost like you could say this integration is the blockchain equivalent of mixing fine wine with your finest *everything else*.

CryptoEri, a well-known crypto commentator, weighed in, commenting on X, “The XRP Ledger will probably handle some actual transactions (like settling trades, moving RLUSD collateral) and record-keeping tasks (like trade details, clearing data) for Hidden Road’s post-trade processes.” A perfect addition to Ripple’s grand plan to make their ledger a real-time clearing bus rather than just a passive settlement layer. Maybe it’s time to stop calling it a *ledger* and start calling it the superhero of crypto finance. 🦸‍♀️

Ripple’s acquisition, announced on April 8, 2025, still awaits regulatory approval. But let’s not get too bogged down with the details. Hidden Road already connects to top venues like Coinbase International, OKX, Deribit, Bitfinex, and Bullish, which means Ripple has a slick channel to distribute RLUSD as soon as the deal closes. Craddock, ever the optimist, noted that Ripple’s primary focus remains on “building real-world use cases for digital assets and solving problems for our banking and institutional customers.” So humble, so visionary. 💼✨

As of now, XRP is trading at $2.11. Better get in while it’s still a bargain, folks! 🏃‍♂️💨

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2025-04-21 09:46

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