On April 8, 2025, Ripple made headlines in the crypto world by announcing a significant $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road during the Paris Blockchain Week. This acquisition marked Ripple’s entry as the first crypto firm to establish a global, multi-asset prime brokerage, thereby creating a financing infrastructure akin to that which traditional financial institutions have relied on for decades. Ripple asserted that this strategic move positions both RLUSD, its stablecoin, and the XRP Ledger for enhanced global institutional adoption.
Fast forward to April 2026, Ripple has successfully rebranded Hidden Road as Ripple Prime, and the organization has seen remarkable expansion. However, despite this progress, XRP’s value has not mirrored the success of Ripple Prime. The cryptocurrency has seen a decline, dropping from over $2 a year ago to its current trading price of $1.38. As Ripple Prime’s performance is evaluated over the past year, its implications for XRP’s future become crucial, particularly as 2026 unfolds.
Post-acquisition, Ripple transitioned from being a payment-focused entity to an institutional market player. The company has consistently delivered on its roadmap promises, including its rebranding initiatives. Prior to the acquisition, Hidden Road was already managing an impressive $3 trillion in annual transactions across a network of 300 institutional clients. Since the deal was finalized in October 2025, Ripple’s disclosures indicate that the business has tripled in size, with client collateral increasing significantly and average daily transactions surpassing 60 million.
Building on this growth, Ripple successfully raised $500 million in November 2025, achieving a valuation of $40 billion, backed by significant investments from Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities. Additional financial investments totaling roughly $500 million have also been made into Ripple Prime since the acquisition, with another $500 million earmarked for 2026 according to a Kroll report. Ripple Prime has reached profitability as it continues to process heightened volumes and expand its roster of institutional clients.
In April 2026, Ripple Prime earned a BBB investment-grade rating from Kroll, a rare accomplishment for a crypto-associated prime broker, which paves the way for pension funds, banks, and insurance companies to engage with its platform. This momentum has positively influenced investor sentiment towards RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin, which is positioned to bridge traditional finance with digital asset markets. RLUSD was recently approved for use as margin collateral on OKX across over 280 trading pairs, reflecting Ripple’s commitment to integrating its offerings with larger financial systems.
However, XRP’s failure to increase in value despite Ripple Prime’s achievements raises questions about the correlation between the platform’s growth and XRP’s performance. Historically, internal developments within Ripple have acted as pivotal drivers for XRP’s price. Nonetheless, this relationship appears to have weakened significantly.
The current XRP burn rate is too minimal to impact its market dynamics meaningfully. With just 0.00001 XRP burned per transaction—a fee structured to mitigate spam rather than reduce supply—the impact on XRP’s overall availability and price growth has been negligible. Since 2013, total XRP burns have removed only about 0.014% of the total supply, which stands at 100 billion.
Moreover, external influences have begun to drive XRP’s price trends more than internal advancements by Ripple. Notable events include the U.S. government shutdown that extended from October to November 2025, which delayed crucial financial legislation and encouraged a sell-off of XRP, pushing its price down from approximately $2.95 to around $2.20. Concurrent global tensions, such as conflicts in the Middle East, have also diverted investor confidence toward safer assets like oil and gold.
Despite Ripple Prime’s strong operational results over the past year, XRP has faced significant setbacks, losing 27% of its value in the first quarter of 2026 and remaining under bearish pressure into the second quarter. This trend suggests an increasingly tenuous link between Ripple’s advancements and XRP’s market performance.
Looking ahead, for XRP to reflect the growth of Ripple Prime, favorable external conditions will be essential. Key catalysts to monitor include ongoing peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran and the potential passage of the CLARITY Act, which is seen as a crucial step in providing regulatory clarity for XRP. With continuing geopolitical unrest and regulatory developments hanging in the balance, Ripple Prime may maintain its operational prowess, but until these external events unfold, XRP’s price impact may remain muted.
