Crypto payments firm Ripple is acquiring brokerage house Hidden Road for $1.25 billion in one of the biggest M&A deals ever in crypto.
The deal is the second billion-dollar-plus deal in about a month, as the re-election of President Donald Trump has re-energized the crypto market, with many expecting regulations to ease.
Just last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a legal case against Ripple that accused it of conducting an illegal securities offering.
“We are at an inflection point for the next phase of digital asset adoption — the U.S. market is effectively open for the first time due to the regulatory overhang of the former SEC coming to an end, and the market is maturing to address the needs of traditional finance,” said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in a statement.
Hidden Road clears $3 trillion annually across markets with more than 300 top institutional customers, including hedge funds.
Crypto’s upswing
The deal continues a surge of momentum in the crypto industry — although even that has been somewhat dampened by the current tariff issues dogging the economy.
Just last month, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken said it would buy retail futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion.
In addition, stablecoin issuer Circle and eToro — which operates a trading platform for stocks, cryptocurrencies and other assets — both recently filed for an IPO — however, the current market instability will likely alter those plans.
Overall, venture funding to startups in the crypto and blockchain space rocketed to $3.8 billion in 220 deals in Q1, per Crunchbase data. The dollar figure represents a 138% jump from the previous quarter, which saw only $1.6 billion go to Web3 startups in 242 deals.
However, those numbers were propped up by cryptocurrency exchange Binance’s massive $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX. The deal is the single largest investment into a crypto company.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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