Ripple CEO $3B Acquisition Wave’s Meant to Bridge TradFi and DeFi

Ripple has spent nearly $3 billion on strategic acquisitions since 2023 to connect traditional financial infrastructure and decentralized finance on a global scale. According to remarks from Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, these purchases are designed to bring institutional-grade custody, treasury capabilities, brokerage services, and payments into Ripple’s evolving digital asset ecosystem.

Garlinghouse shared the rationale behind Ripple’s acquisitions during recent public appearances. Emphasizing a long-term strategy to help institutions integrate blockchain tools, payments rails, and liquidity solutions across legacy finance and crypto networks.

Ripple’s Acquisitions Build Institutional Infrastructure

Ripple’s acquisition spree spans custody, prime brokerage, treasury management, stablecoin payments, and wallet technology. Reflecting a deliberate expansion across core layers of financial infrastructure.

In 2023, Ripple acquired Metaco, a regulated crypto custody firm, strengthening its ability to securely hold institutional digital assets. Then, in 2024, the company added Standard Custody, reinforcing regulated custody offerings for enterprise clients. However, 2025 marked a more aggressive phase. In April, Ripple agreed to buy Hidden Road, a global prime brokerage platform, for approximately $1.25 billion.

Moreover, the platform has since been rebranded as Ripple Prime. Offering multi-asset clearing, financing and brokerage services previously unavailable directly within the crypto sector. Later in the year, Ripple announced its $1 billion acquisition of GTreasury. A corporate treasury management platform that services hundreds of firms and moves trillions in payments annually. Finally, the company added Rail, a stablecoin payment technology provider, and Palisade, a wallet technology firm.

During a Fox Business interview, Garlinghouse said the common thread across these moves is not sheer expansion, but building bridges between the traditional financial system and decentralized networks. He pointed out that technologies and risk management tools handle trillions in payments globally, yet today none of those flows leverage crypto rails or stablecoins. Ripple intends to change that by integrating blockchain tools into these existing systems.

Implications for Ripple and the Broader Market

Ripple’s acquisition strategy signals a shift in how crypto firms approach enterprise engagement. Rather than positioning blockchain as an alternative settlement layer only, Ripple appears to be embedding it within existing financial workflows. If successful, this could accelerate institutional adoption by making digital assets more practical for treasury, liquidity, and payment operations.

For XRP specifically, these moves expand the token’s potential utility beyond payments and settlements toward broader use cases, including collateralization and liquidity provisioning across prime brokerage and treasury tools.

Importantly, the acquisitions also align with Ripple’s long-stated “Internet of Value” vision, in which blockchain becomes the backbone for value transfer across borders, asset classes, and financial systems at scale.

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