Ripple’s Hidden Road Acquisition Accelerates Institutional Shift Into DeFi
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is spotlighting the rapid rise of Hidden Road, the firm’s newly acquired prime brokerage, as a key player bringing traditional finance deeper into the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
In a recent episode of the Crypto In One Minute series, Garlinghouse described prime brokers like Hidden Road as critical gateways for institutions—from hedge funds to trading desks—to access everything from derivatives to digital assets. Traditionally, this role has been dominated by legacy giants like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. But now, fintech players like Ripple are stepping into that space.
Hidden Road, according to Garlinghouse, is handling massive trading volumes and bridging the gap between old finance and new tech. With a strong capital base and growing client list, the firm is reportedly helping traditional financial institutions integrate with DeFi platforms and crypto infrastructure.
The move reflects Ripple’s broader strategy to expand beyond cross-border payments and deepen its involvement in institutional crypto access. Garlinghouse hinted that more prime brokers will likely follow suit as demand for secure and compliant DeFi access ramps up.
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Meanwhile, blockchain trackers reported another significant XRP transaction on-chain, signaling continued movement among large holders as Ripple’s ecosystem keeps expanding.
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coindoo and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
