Is Ripple Prime Bad for XRP Price?

Is Ripple Prime Bad for XRP Price?

Opinions

By
Dan Burgin

Sat, 12/09/2026 – 13:13

Ripple Prime has turned Ripple into a broader institutional financial-services provider, but its expansion beyond XRP does not mean the company has abandoned the token.

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• What is Ripple Prime?
• How will Ripple Prime create institutional demand for crypto?
• What is happening to XRP price?
• Is XRP still Ripple’s ‘North Star’?

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What is Ripple Prime?

Ripple Prime is the prime brokerage business created after Ripple acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. The transaction was completed in October 2025, after which Hidden Road was rebranded as Ripple Prime. 

Ripple said the acquisition made it the first crypto company to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker.

The acquisition brought an established institutional business into Ripple’s portfolio. Before the deal, Hidden Road was already clearing more than $3 trillion annually for more than 300 institutional customers across multiple asset classes. 

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Ripple now describes Prime as providing multi-asset clearing, cross-margining, portfolio financing and risk-based financing across traditional and digital markets.

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How will Ripple Prime create institutional demand for crypto?

According to Ripple, its synergy with Hidden Road, a nonbank prime broker, makes the acquisition a logical next step to support institutional adoption of digital assets, including XRP and RLUSD.

Ripple initially built its identity around blockchain-based cross-border payments. Its business has since expanded into several areas of financial infrastructure. Payments are now accompanied by custody, stablecoin settlement, treasury services and prime brokerage.

Each business addresses a different part of the institutional trading process. Ripple Payments is focused on moving value. Ripple Custody provides infrastructure for holding and managing digital assets. RLUSD is positioned as a regulated stablecoin for settlement and collateral. Ripple Prime adds execution, clearing, financing and liquidity.

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The result is a company that is increasingly trying to provide institutions with several pieces of the financial infrastructure required to interact with digital assets rather than relying on a single crypto-related product.

Prime brokerage addresses a problem that has become increasingly apparent as institutional participation in digital assets has grown.

Traditional financial markets rely on infrastructure that allows institutions to manage execution, financing, collateral and settlement without maintaining an entirely separate bilateral relationship with every trading venue.

Crypto markets have historically been more fragmented. Institutions can encounter different exchanges, custodians, liquidity providers and credit arrangements, each with its own operational requirements.

A prime brokerage model can consolidate some of those functions. Ripple’s proposition is that institutions can obtain access to multiple markets while using centralized credit and clearing infrastructure rather than maintaining a collection of disconnected relationships.

Ripple Prime’s multi-asset structure is particularly significant in this respect. Its clients do not need to treat digital assets as an isolated market. The platform is designed to operate across crypto and traditional assets, reflecting the increasingly blurred boundary between the two markets.

What is happening to XRP price?

XRP has also experienced a substantial recovery over the past several weeks, although the move has lost some momentum in September.

The token began August around the $1.10 area following an extended period of weakness and consolidation. It then advanced through the month, with the price reaching approximately $1.42 by September 6.

The rally continued into the first part of September, with XRP briefly moving toward $1.44 on September 8 and 9. The token subsequently retreated toward the $1.35-$1.37 range by September 11-12.

That still leaves XRP roughly 24% to 25% above its level at the beginning of August, despite the recent pullback.

The market has also been watching activity among larger XRP holders. On-chain data cited in market reports indicated that wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP increased their combined holdings during the earlier part of the rally.

According to on-chain reports, it was during this rise from $1.00 to $1.70 that large investors carried out the first stage of aggressive buying: the cohort of wallets holding between one million and 10 million XRP increased its positions by 642 million tokens.

The main factor behind the expected volatility is Sept. 15. On that day, the US Senate is scheduled to hold a critical procedural vote on the CLARITY Act, which is intended to define the legal status of digital assets and divide regulatory authority between the SEC and CFTC.

Is XRP still Ripple’s ‘North Star’?

Earlier this year, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stressed that XRP is the “North Star” for Ripple. 

“It’s our purpose. When we think about what we are doing on Ripple Payments, or Ripple Prime, or Ripple Treasury, or Custody, or RLUSD, this is all focused on how we can drive utility, trust, and…liquidity around XRP and the XRP Ledger,” Garlinghouse said.  XRP is the “heartbeat” of Ripple, which is a platform company for financial infrastructure.  

With Prime, Ripple is building a broader financial-services company. Prime brokerage, custody, stablecoins, payments and treasury services now sit alongside the company’s older XRP-related business.

RLUSD has become increasingly important. Ripple explicitly positions RLUSD as its institutional settlement and collateral asset.

The strongest argument against the idea that Ripple has moved away from XRP is not that XRP remains associated with the company’s history. It is that Ripple continues to describe XRP as part of its current institutional strategy.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has previously referred to XRP as the company’s “North Star,” while describing payments, Prime, treasury, custody and RLUSD as parts of a broader effort to increase utility, liquidity and trust around XRP and the XRP Ledger.

At the same time, Ripple Prime’s multi-asset model means XRP is no longer the only asset that matters to the company’s institutional business.

Ripple can simultaneously build a diversified financial-services company and continue developing use cases for XRP. In fact, the former could potentially give the latter more avenues for institutional adoption.

The company’s acquisition of Hidden Road therefore looks less like a move away from XRP and more like an attempt to build the infrastructure surrounding a much broader institutional digital-asset market.

There are still questions about how much of Ripple Prime’s activity will ultimately translate into demand for XRP. A multi-asset prime broker does not automatically create demand for any individual cryptocurrency, and institutional clients can use the platform without making XRP central to their strategies.

The available evidence therefore does not support the stronger claim that Ripple has abandoned XRP. What it does show is that Ripple’s business is becoming less dependent on any single product or use case.

That may be the more significant development. Ripple is evolving from a company primarily identified with blockchain payments into a broader financial-infrastructure provider. XRP remains part of that ecosystem, but it now sits within a much larger institutional strategy.

#ripple
#XRP
#XRP Price Prediction
#Brad Garlinghouse
#Ripple Prime

• What is Ripple Prime?
• How will Ripple Prime create institutional demand for crypto?
• What is happening to XRP price?
• Is XRP still Ripple’s ‘North Star’?

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