Did Ripple finish its purchase of Hidden Road, and what does that mean for the XRP Ledger?

The full answer

Did the Hidden Road deal close?

Yes, according to Ripple. The company announced on April 8, 2025 that it was acquiring Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, and said the deal was expected to close in the coming months, subject to regulatory approvals [2]. On October 24, 2025, Ripple said the acquisition was complete and that Hidden Road is now Ripple Prime [1]. On November 5, 2025, Ripple described the purchase as recently completed [3].

These are Ripple’s own statements, and no regulator or Hidden Road statement on the closing has been published that I could cite. The page lists what Ripple said and when, and no regulator or Hidden Road statement is cited here.

What happened to Hidden Road after the deal?

It was renamed Ripple Prime. Ripple said in its release announcing a $500 million strategic investment led by Fortress and Citadel Securities that it had recently completed its acquisition of Hidden Road, now known as Ripple Prime, where RLUSD is already in use as collateral [3]. Those are company figures, and no independent check of them has been published. The release also said RLUSD was already in use as collateral at Ripple Prime [3]. For a fuller description of the product, see what Ripple Prime is.

What did Ripple say it would mean for the XRP Ledger?

At announcement in April 2025, Ripple said Hidden Road would move its post-trade activity onto the XRP Ledger and would use RLUSD for cross-margining [2]. That was a stated intention tied to a deal that had not yet closed.

Has that move happened?

Not as of the latest report cited here. Cryptonews reported on March 4, 2026 that the deal had closed in October 2025 and that Hidden Road had been rebranded as Ripple Prime, but that it was not yet settling any DTCC trades on the XRP Ledger [4]. Whether anything has changed since that date is not established by a source cited on this page, as of October 6, 2026.

Does the deal create demand for XRP?

The strongest opposing view comes from the crypto.news audit of July 25, 2026. It said the acquired businesses run primarily on fiat, traditional assets and RLUSD, so that the company has built a path to institutional success that does not require XRP demand [5]. Ripple’s plan to use the XRP Ledger for post-trade work would not necessarily involve buying XRP, and none of the cited reporting says it would.

How the purchases were paid for is a separate question, covered in how Ripple Prime has been funded and what Ripple has bought. The wider debate over Ripple’s XRP holdings and sales is on the page about the original XRP distribution and founder sales.