Ripple is earning fees financing leveraged stock bets, a business long run by banks
Source: CoinDesk ·
From the source
The crypto company's $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road has opened a corner of Wall Street where funds pay to amplify daily moves in stocks such as Nvidia and Sandisk. Ripple is expanding into the business of financing leveraged stock exchange-traded funds, putting the crypto company in a market long dominated by major banks and securities firms. Its prime brokerage division, Ripple Prime, is supplying financing for funds that let investors multiply the daily moves of individual stocks and market indexes, according to a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday. Ripple entered the business through its $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, a multi-asset prime brokerage firm, in October 2025. The deal gave Ripple an established operation that clears trades, finances investment positions and handles transactions across stocks, bonds, currencies and digital assets. A fund promising twice the daily return of Nvidia can enter into a financial contract called a total return swap rather…