Ripple now earns prime brokerage fees after $1.25 billion Hidden Road deal

Ripple is now collecting prime brokerage fees on leveraged stock trades. The revenue comes through Ripple Prime, the rebranded version of Hidden Road. Ripple bought the multi-asset prime broker for $1.25 billion. The unit is now financing leveraged equity products, a business with deep roots on Wall Street and almost none in crypto. How Ripple Prime makes money on leveraged stocks By October 2026, Ripple Prime had started booking revenue from prime brokerage fees. The focus is on financing leveraged equity products, and the main tool is the total return swap. Think of a total return swap like renting a stock instead of buying it. One party gets the full gains and losses of a stock or index. The other party, here Ripple Prime, supplies the financing and gets paid a fee for it. One example is the Tradr 2X Long SNDK Daily ETF. The fund aims for compounded returns tied to the performance of Sandisk shares. Ripple Prime supplies the financing behind that structure. The pricing is set at OBFR plus 4%. OBFR is the Overnight Bank Funding Rate, a benchmark for short-term borrowing between banks. On an annualized basis, that arrangement works out to about 8%. The market for these products is...