John Deaton Highlights Ripple’s $1.25 Billion Acquisition of Hidden Road
John Deaton, a crypto lawyer and XRP advocate, praised Ripple Labs for its $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, signaling the company's commitment to integrating traditional finance with decentralized systems.
Key Points of Ripple's Acquisition
- Hidden Road is a prime brokerage firm handling over $3 trillion in transactions annually for more than 300 institutional clients.
- This acquisition positions Ripple to enhance blockchain integration in traditional finance.
- Ripple can reduce post-trade settlement times on the XRP Ledger from 24 hours to 3-5 seconds.
- Ripple's stablecoin, RLUSD, will act as collateral for these transactions, facilitating connections between digital assets and traditional markets.
- Ripple has previously acquired Metaco and Standard Custody to launch Ripple Custody, targeting the $16 trillion custody market by 2030.
- Potentially introducing tokenization-as-a-service, allowing institutions to tokenize assets directly on the XRP Ledger.
Strategic Direction
Ripple President Monica Long emphasized that the Hidden Road acquisition aligns with Ripple’s strategy to enhance financial infrastructure services, including global payments and asset tokenization. Integrating XRP and RLUSD is a primary focus, aiming to bridge blockchain efficiency with the stability of traditional finance. The firm is shifting its focus away from legal challenges towards becoming a leader in institutional finance, with plans for institutional-grade crypto custody in South Korea through a partnership with BDACS.