Ripple announced that Hidden Road, a fast-growing and encrypted money-friendly major broker, would be purchased at $1.25 billion. This transaction, which will be completed in the coming months after regulatory approval, is one of the largest acquisitions in the encryption industry to date.

The acquisition made Ripple the first encryption company to own and operate major global multi-asset brokers, as indicated in the bulletin.

The announcement followed reports that Hidden Road was actively negotiating acquisitions. Last week, sources revealed to CoinDesk that the company dealing with traditional and digital assets had received an unsolicited offer from an encrypted original company. At that time, the identity of potential buyers had not been made public.

Hidden Road, known for serving more than 300 institutional clients and liquidating more than $3 trillion annually in foreign exchange (FX), digital assets, derivatives and fixed earnings, will join the growing institutional-level product array of Ripple.

This acquisition is taking place at a time when the encryption market is developing, replicating traditional financial structures and complexities.

“We are at a critical turning point in the next phase of the adoption of digital assets — the first real opening of the United States market, which is maturing to meet the needs of traditional finance, with the end of the shadow of the former SEC regulation — as stated in a statement by Chief Executive Officer Ripple Brad Garlinghouse.

Through this acquisition, Ripple will significantly expand the influence of its flagship currency Ripple USD. The token will now be used as collateral for Hidden Road brokering products.

According to Ripple, this integration marked the first time that RLUSD was a stable currency for efficient cross-guarantee transactions between traditional and digital markets, an important step towards the unification of institutional transactions.

In addition, as part of the transaction, Hidden Road will relocate its ex post transaction operations to XRP Books (XRPL) - Ripple stated that this would reduce costs and increase the financial scalability of high-capacity institutions.

Chief Executive Officer Hidden Road, Marc Asch, stated that the acquisition would bring key benefits to his company, such as “new resources, licences and increased venture capital”, which would facilitate a significant expansion.

Asch expects that this will enable Hidden Road to expand operations, enhance product supply and reach wider markets.