Ripple Prime is expanding its institutional offering into U.S. equity derivatives, launching a Delta One business that gives professional investors access to total return swaps tied to U.S.-listed stocks, indexes and digital assets. The move broadens Ripple’s prime brokerage platform beyond its existing focus on foreign exchange, fixed income, derivatives and crypto markets.
Ripple Prime Broadens Institutional Trading Services
Ripple Prime, the multi-asset prime brokerage arm of Ripple, has launched a new Delta One trading business aimed at institutional investors.
The service allows eligible clients to gain exposure to U.S.-listed equities, stock indexes and digital assets through total return swaps, without directly purchasing the underlying assets.
Total return swaps are derivative contracts that allow one party to receive the economic performance of an asset—including price appreciation and certain income—while the underlying security remains outside the investor’s direct ownership.
The new offering is primarily designed for hedge funds, asset managers and other institutional financial firms seeking access to multiple asset classes through a single prime brokerage relationship.
Ripple Prime says clients will also be able to cross-margin positions across supported markets, potentially allowing institutions to manage collateral more efficiently.
What Delta One Adds to Ripple Prime
The Delta One launch represents a significant expansion of Ripple Prime’s institutional infrastructure.
Rather than requiring clients to maintain separate relationships for different markets, the platform is positioning itself as a unified venue for trading, financing and clearing across several asset classes.
The company says its existing services already cover:
- Foreign exchange
- Fixed-income products
- Derivatives
- Digital assets
- Prime brokerage and clearing
- Institutional financing
The addition of U.S. equity-linked swaps gives clients another way to obtain exposure to traditional capital markets while maintaining their broader digital-asset positions within the same institutional framework.
Ripple Prime President Noel Kimmel described the new business as a natural extension of the platform following the company’s expansion into multi-asset institutional services.
Institutions Can Gain Exposure Without Owning Stocks Directly
A key feature of the Delta One model is that investors can obtain economic exposure to an asset without purchasing the asset itself.
For example, an institutional client seeking exposure to a U.S.-listed stock could enter into a total return swap referencing that stock rather than buying the shares directly.
The arrangement can provide flexibility around financing, collateral management and portfolio construction, although derivatives also introduce counterparty, leverage and market risks.
The same infrastructure can potentially allow institutions to combine traditional equity exposure with digital assets and other positions under a common risk-management framework.
Ripple Prime Builds on Hidden Road Acquisition
Ripple Prime’s expansion follows Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road, a major institutional prime brokerage platform, for approximately $1.25 billion in 2025.
Following the transaction, Hidden Road was rebranded as Ripple Prime, giving Ripple an established institutional infrastructure business spanning multiple financial markets.
The acquisition significantly expanded Ripple’s presence beyond its traditional blockchain and payments activities.
Ripple Prime now operates as a bridge between traditional financial markets and digital assets, providing institutions with services such as clearing, financing and trading infrastructure.
The Delta One launch continues that strategy by connecting crypto-related institutional activity with the much larger U.S. equity market.
More Capital Supports Ripple Prime’s Expansion
Ripple Prime has also been strengthening its balance sheet as it expands its institutional business.
Earlier in August, the company raised $275 million through a private placement of senior unsecured notes.
The financing followed a $200 million debt facility secured earlier in the year from funds managed by Neuberger Specialty Finance.
The additional capital can provide Ripple Prime with greater capacity to support institutional lending, financing and other capital-intensive prime brokerage activities.
The company has stated that Ripple Prime maintains more than $1 billion in regulatory net capital, providing a substantial capital base for its expanding operations.
The Bigger Strategy: Connecting Crypto With Traditional Finance
The Delta One launch reflects a broader trend in institutional finance: the gradual convergence of digital assets and traditional capital markets.
Large investors increasingly want access to crypto, equities, foreign exchange and other markets through institutional-grade infrastructure rather than through separate platforms.
For Ripple, the strategy creates an opportunity to position its prime brokerage business at that intersection.
Digital assets can become another component of a broader multi-asset portfolio, while traditional securities can be incorporated into infrastructure historically associated with crypto markets.
The approach also reduces the distinction between digital-asset and conventional institutional trading.
Ripple Prime Targets a Larger Institutional Market
The immediate focus will be on institutional clients that require sophisticated trading, financing and collateral-management capabilities.
Hedge funds and asset managers can use derivatives to express market views, hedge existing positions or gain exposure to assets without holding them directly.
By combining equity derivatives with digital assets and other financial products, Ripple Prime is seeking to compete for a broader share of institutional trading activity.
The launch also highlights how prime brokerage is evolving as traditional financial institutions increasingly interact with digital assets.
Ripple Prime’s Delta One business therefore represents more than a new derivatives product. It is another step in Ripple’s effort to build a multi-asset institutional platform where equities, derivatives, traditional finance and digital assets can be managed through a common financial infrastructure.
