- RLUSD will serve as collateral for all Hidden Road services, enabling 24/7 cross-margin trading.
- Hidden Road will migrate post-trade processes to the XRP Ledger for efficient institutional settlement.
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse will testify at a Senate hearing on a bill clarifying digital asset classifications.
Ripple has announced that its U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, RLUSD, will serve as collateral for all services at Hidden Road. This move introduces the first stablecoin designed for continuous, cross-margin trading between digital assets and traditional financial markets. The integration was confirmed by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse at a press conference in Singapore, following the company’s $1.25 billion acquisition of the prime broking firm.
RLUSD Enables 24/7 Trading Across Asset Classes
Confirmed by PaulBarron via an X post, the RLUSD stablecoin will now support margin trading at scale across both crypto and traditional markets. This includes equities, commodities, FX, and digital assets. According to Ripple, RLUSD offers full availability throughout the year with no operational downtime. The arrangement gives institutional clients uninterrupted access to capital movement across platforms.
RLUSD’s implementation is expected to allow institutions to manage risk and margin requirements using a single stable asset. The capability to cross-margin across different asset classes has not been available through existing stablecoins. Ripple stated that RLUSD’s backing by regulated U.S. dollar reserves supports its integration into traditional financial operations.
Hidden Road to Use XRP Ledger for Post-Trade Activity
As part of the acquisition agreement, Hidden Road will migrate its post-trade settlement processes to the XRP Ledger. The distributed ledger provides fast and energy-efficient settlement infrastructure. It is designed to handle global transaction volumes with reduced operating costs. Ripple confirmed that this move aims to streamline institutional trade processes and expand financial product offerings.
Hidden Road, founded in 2018, clears over $3 trillion in annual volume. It offers services in OTC trading, financing, and clearing across more than 300 institutional clients. The firm also operates a global credit network linking both traditional and crypto markets.
Senate Hearing to Address Ripple’s Regulatory Background
This new announcement follows a recent development where, on July 9, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on crypto market regulation. According to our recent report, Brad Garlinghouse is scheduled to testify as a witness. The hearing will review a bill introduced by four Republican senators aimed at classifying digital assets as either securities or commodities.
Garlinghouse will address the members of the committee and will be available alongside speakers of Chainalysis and Paradigm and the Blockchain Association. The history of Ripple and regulators would be explained, including its meetings with U.S. regulators over the years and the agreement reached with the FinCEN in 2015.
This bill aims at clearing the jurisdiction of regulation, and eliminating the confusion of asset bete. XRP is also traded on more than 200 exchanges where different regulators at the international level classify it as a non-security. The hearing in the Senate can be relevant toward achieving uniform regulatory definitions of the crypto assets.
