Ripple Starts Digital-asset Spot Prime Brokerage in America

The move will be a major institutional push by Ripple, which now provides over-the-counter (OTC) spot trading in major digital assets, such as its own XRP as well as stablecoin RLUSD, through its newly-named platform, Ripple Prime.

Platform Introduction and institutional access

Ripple Prime, under the umbrella, institutional clients in the U.S. are able to carry out OTC spot in dozens of digital assets. More importantly, the offering enables cross-margining of spot trades with derivatives, swaps and futures positions- introducing digital-asset and more conventional financial instruments on the same platform. Ripple Prime International CEO Michael Higgins said the new spot execution features will work side by side with other digital asset derivative offerings of the company.

Strategic Acquisition: Hidden Road

This is a follow up on the move made by Ripple to buy out Hidden Road, a multi-asset prime brokerage that has a global clearing and financing and derivatives business. The infrastructure of Hidden Road is incorporated in Ripple Prime which allows the company to provide the entire stack of prime brokerage services, such as FX, fixed income, derivatives and, currently, spot crypto.

Implications & Market Positioning

Ripple is presenting itself as the boundary between TradFi and crypto finance by providing a combined platform to both spot crypto, derivatives and traditional financial instruments. A further positive indicator of the use of RLUSD in institutions is its functionality as collateral and cross-margining. Effectively, Ripple is competing to be a one-stop institutional infrastructure provider of digital assets.

Regulatory and Competitive Environment

The regulatory environment in the U.S. has been evolving towards more favourable regulation of digital-asset infrastructure, enabling institutions to become innovative. This is a momentum that Ripple is trying to take advantage of. As other firms are also offering institutional grade products, institutional wallet share and prime brokerage services competition in crypto is increasing.

Conclusion

The launch of an institutional digital-asset ecosystem by Ripple Prime as a U.S. spot prime-brokerage service is a groundbreaking service offering in the market. The company is carving out a premium space between crypto and traditional finance by integrating spot trading, derivatives functionality, cross-margining and integrating stablecoins. With regulatory clarity increasing and institutionalization becoming more widespread, the increased infrastructure of Ripple may become a turning point in the interaction of large entities with digital assets. Client adoption will be the key success factor in the entire platform but regulatory stability and capacity of the firm to provide smooth integration across asset classes will ensure the full success of the platform, but the groundwork is now well established.

This article was originally published as Ripple Starts Digital-asset Spot Prime Brokerage in America on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.