Brevan Howard will use Ripple Prime for multi-asset prime brokerage, clearing and financing under an expanded arrangement that gives the $35 billion hedge fund access to services built from Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road.
The agreement extends a relationship that already includes Brevan Howard’s investment in Ripple and its participation in Ripple’s $500 million strategic funding round last year. That financing round placed a $40 billion valuation on Ripple, linking one of the largest macro hedge fund managers more closely to the company’s institutional-services strategy.
Ripple Prime was created after Ripple acquired institutional prime broker Hidden Road in a $1.25 billion transaction. Prime brokers sit between major trading firms and markets, offering a package of services that can include trade execution, custody coordination, clearing, financing and margin management. For a macro fund operating across asset classes, combining those functions through one provider can simplify the operational side of trading and reduce the number of counterparties needed for certain activities.
The arrangement places Brevan Howard among the early fund clients connected to Ripple’s effort to turn its institutional business into a multi-asset platform rather than a service focused solely on digital assets.
Ripple Prime expands beyond crypto services
Ripple’s purchase of Hidden Road gave it an established institutional brokerage operation with links to foreign exchange, fixed income, derivatives and digital-asset markets. The renamed Ripple Prime business has been expanding its product range as it seeks to serve hedge funds, trading firms and other professional market participants that require financing and post-trade infrastructure across several markets.
Earlier this year, credit-rating agency KBRA assigned Ripple Prime a BBB rating. KBRA said the company was scaling its operations and pursuing product diversification, including equity prime brokerage and swaps. Such products would widen the platform’s role beyond crypto trading and place it in direct competition for business traditionally handled by large banks and established non-bank prime brokers.
The rating is relevant for a business whose services depend heavily on counterparty confidence. Prime brokerage clients often need credit, margin and settlement arrangements that remain reliable during periods of market stress, while lenders and counterparties assess the financial strength of the intermediary providing those services.
Ripple Prime later obtained a $200 million debt facility from Neuberger Berman. The financing was tied to the expansion of institutional margin lending, which allows eligible clients to borrow against collateral for trading and other market activity. Margin lending can help funds use capital more efficiently, though it also increases exposure when markets move sharply and collateral values fall.
Brevan Howard’s use of clearing and financing services therefore gives the deal a more substantial role than a standard technology or liquidity partnership. The arrangement connects the hedge fund to a provider building credit and operational infrastructure intended for institutional-scale trading.
Hyperliquid connection adds an onchain venue
Ripple Prime has also added Hyperliquid, its first direct integration with a decentralized-finance venue. Hyperliquid operates an onchain exchange focused on perpetual futures, contracts that track an asset’s price without a fixed expiry date.
A direct integration means Ripple Prime can include Hyperliquid in the venues available through its product set, rather than requiring a client to establish and manage a completely separate connection. That could make the venue more accessible to firms already using Ripple Prime’s systems for trading workflows, collateral management or reporting.
The connection does not mean that Brevan Howard has disclosed any commitment to trade on Hyperliquid, nor does it establish the size or direction of any positions the fund may take. The operational development is more narrowly defined: Ripple Prime has added a route to an onchain derivatives market as it assembles a multi-venue offering for institutional clients.
Hyperliquid has become one of the larger venues for perpetual-futures activity. According to the figures cited in the announcement materials, the platform cleared $216.9 billion in trading volume over a 30-day period and accounted for 34.6% of the relevant market. Trading volume is not equivalent to capital committed to positions, but it indicates that the venue has developed sufficient activity for larger firms to consider execution and liquidity conditions alongside those offered by centralized derivatives platforms.
For prime brokers, access to liquid venues is only one part of the proposition. Funds also need financing, risk controls, clearing arrangements and the ability to monitor exposures across markets. Ripple Prime’s approach appears designed to package those functions with access to both conventional and blockchain-based trading infrastructure.
A deeper institutional relationship
Brevan Howard has built a presence in digital assets alongside its macro-trading operations, while Ripple has sought deeper relationships with professional trading firms and financial institutions. The new agreement brings those strategies together through a practical service arrangement rather than another equity investment.
It also gives Ripple Prime a prominent client as it tries to demonstrate that the Hidden Road acquisition can support a larger institutional platform. The challenge will be execution: scaling financing and clearing services across asset classes requires strong risk management, stable technology and enough balance-sheet capacity to meet client demand.
For Brevan Howard, the arrangement adds another institutional route to multi-asset services at a time when digital-asset market infrastructure is increasingly being connected with traditional prime-brokerage functions. For Ripple, it extends the commercial value of its Hidden Road acquisition by putting its rebranded prime-brokerage platform to work for a major macro fund.
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