Ripple Expands Into Stock Trading

@Ripple's institutional prime brokerage division, Ripple Prime, has officially launched its Delta One services, building a direct link between traditional equity markets and digital assets. The move marks another step in the firm's push to position itself as a full-service institutional counterparty across both conventional finance and crypto.

What Delta One Means for Institutional Investors

The Delta One rollout allows institutional clients, including hedge funds and ETF issuers, to trade Total Return Swap (TRS) contracts tied to US-listed stocks and indexes alongside digital assets. Ripple Prime plans two new business lines, according to credit agency KBRA. The first is Delta One, covering total return swaps and synthetic equity financing for firms behind leveraged ETFs. The second is equity prime brokerage, where a broker lends money and shares to hedge funds so they can trade with borrowed capital.

Ripple Prime already holds the licenses needed for this work. The firm has SEC broker-dealer registration and CFTC futures commission merchant status, and belongs to FINRA and SIPC. It also clears trades at CME Group exchanges and is a member of the FICC Government Securities Division.

A Broader Buildout Under the Ripple Prime Brand

Ripple Prime was established following Ripple's acquisition of multi-asset prime broker Hidden Road, completed in October 2025, combining Ripple's regulatory licenses with Hidden Road's prime brokerage infrastructure. Since then, the platform has expanded rapidly. Ripple Prime now serves more than 300 institutional customers with over $3 trillion cleared across markets.

The company positions Ripple Prime as an all-in-one service spanning digital assets, foreign exchange, exchange-traded derivatives, over-the-counter swaps, fixed income clearing and repo, plus precious metals. The Delta One launch adds US equity exposure to that mix, giving clients a single venue to manage positions across asset classes.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) assigned a BBB issuer rating to Ripple Prime, placing it in investment-grade territory. The rating determines which institutional counterparties can engage with the firm under standard credit frameworks. Ripple Prime's investment-grade rating is notable in that it is the only crypto-adjacent prime broker a credit agency has rated.

Sources:
Yahoo Finance: Ripple Borrows $275 Million at 8.25% to Take On Goldman Sachs
CoinDesk: Ripple Expands US Institutional Offering With Digital Asset Spot Prime Brokerage
FinTech Weekly: Ripple Prime Investment-Grade Credit Rating