Ripple, the powerhouse behind the XRP Ledger and the XRP cryptocurrency, is accelerating its expansion strategy with a series of upcoming acquisitions and Ethereum-style enhancements to its blockchain.
Following its headline-making $1.25 billion acquisition of prime brokerage Hidden Road earlier this year, Ripple has signaled that more deals are on the horizon.
“Our M&A team is extremely active,” said David Schwartz, Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, in a recent interview with DL News in New York. “We’re currently evaluating several acquisition opportunities, ranging from early exploratory stages to near completion.”
Ripple is the developer of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), a decentralized blockchain optimized for payments, and the issuer of XRP—currently the fourth-largest crypto asset by market cap, valued at $124 billion as of Thursday. Only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether’s USDT surpass it in size.
In recent months, Ripple has been doubling down on its push into traditional finance, positioning XRP and its newly announced U.S. dollar stablecoin, RLUSD, as efficient solutions for cross-border settlements.
The acquisition of Hidden Road wasn’t Ripple’s first strategic move. It previously acquired crypto custody firm Metaco for $250 million and added Standard Custody to its portfolio shortly thereafter. These acquisitions are key to expanding Ripple’s global financial infrastructure.
Ripple has also confirmed that RLUSD will serve as collateral across Hidden Road’s brokerage services—further embedding its stablecoin into institutional workflows.
As early as January, the company stated publicly that it was actively scouting targets for acquisition. With momentum building and regulatory clarity improving, Ripple appears poised to scale aggressively on both the technological and business fronts.
