Ripple Prime is pitching XRP not just as a traded asset, but as working collateral inside institutional market structure. In a March 17 interview with Jake ClaverRipple Prime is pitching XRP not just as a traded asset, but as working collateral inside institutional market structure. In a March 17 interview with Jake Claver

Institutions Are Using XRP As Collateral, Says Ripple Prime CEO

2026/03/19 10:30
3 min read
For feedback or concerns regarding this content, please contact us at crypto.news@mexc.com

Ripple Prime is pitching XRP not just as a traded asset, but as working collateral inside institutional market structure. In a March 17 interview with Jake Claver, international CEO Mike Higgins said Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road, now rebranded as Ripple Prime, is designed to bring prime brokerage, clearing, custody and treasury functions into a single institutional stack.

Higgins framed Ripple Prime as an access layer for firms trading across both traditional and digital markets. The core idea, he said, is that those markets are no longer separate for much longer, and institutions will need balance-sheet access, collateral mobility and cross-margining tools that work across both.

The Role Of XRP Within Ripple Prime

That is where XRP enters the picture. Higgins said Ripple Prime has built “innovative ways around taking XRP as collateral” and using it to finance trades, allowing institutional clients to post digital assets without first liquidating them into dollars. In practice, that means a firm holding XRP can keep the position on its balance sheet while still accessing leverage or liquidity in markets that do not natively accept XRP.

He gave a concrete example using CME futures. “If you wanted to trade futures on the CME, the CME doesn’t take XRP as good collateral,” Higgins said. “Instead of transforming that and selling that into dollars to give to your clearer, what you can do through Ripple Prime is post your XRP as good margin. We give you dollar credit to trade on the CME, and so now you could be long spot, front-month future, capturing the basis trade.”

That comparison was central to his argument. Higgins likened the model to traditional commodity finance, where a bank would lend against oranges, gold or Treasuries rather than require a client to sell the underlying asset first. The difference now is that crypto-native collateral is starting to be recognized inside institutional risk systems. For holders of assets like XRP, he said, that avoids crystallizing profit and loss, preserves treasury positions and opens up additional return strategies.

He also argued that digital collateral has one structural advantage over traditional assets: it can be moved and liquidated around the clock. That matters not only for trading, but for risk management. “When you trade traditional assets, they have an open and a close every day and they have weekends or long periods of holidays,” Higgins said. “What you get the next day are these huge gaps. A smooth 24/7 market where you can move collateral, that velocity of collateral to meet collateral calls shrinks.”

In Higgins’ telling, the institutional case for tokenization is broader than a single asset. He pointed to Treasury operations, tokenized repo, onchain money-market products and, eventually, tokenized equities as part of the same transition. “You already have crypto as an asset class itself. You have stablecoin usage,” he said. “The world is inexorably moving in this direction and the pace of that is increasing now that we’ve already proven out the thesis of using the technologies with crypto.”

Still, he did not suggest a clean handoff from legacy finance to open DeFi. Higgins repeatedly stressed compliance, counterparty transparency and permissioned access as prerequisites for serious institutional adoption.

Public decentralized venues may be winning market share, he said, but large firms still need AML, KYC and balance-sheet visibility before they can deploy capital at scale. That leaves prime brokers in a familiar role: connecting fragmented pools of liquidity while managing credit, margin and settlement across venues.

At press time, XRP traded at $1.46.

XRP price chart
Disclaimer: The articles reposted on this site are sourced from public platforms and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not necessarily reflect the views of MEXC. All rights remain with the original authors. If you believe any content infringes on third-party rights, please contact crypto.news@mexc.com for removal. MEXC makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the content and is not responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided. The content does not constitute financial, legal, or other professional advice, nor should it be considered a recommendation or endorsement by MEXC.

You May Also Like

Leonardo AI Unveils Comprehensive Image Editing Suite with Six Model Options

Leonardo AI Unveils Comprehensive Image Editing Suite with Six Model Options

Leonardo AI releases detailed guide to AI image editing featuring Nano Banana, GPT Image 1.5, and Flux models as competition heats up with Adobe, Google, and Canva
Share
BlockChain News2026/03/19 12:39
RBA warns high and rising risk of severe shock to world economy amid Iran war

RBA warns high and rising risk of severe shock to world economy amid Iran war

The post RBA warns high and rising risk of severe shock to world economy amid Iran war appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)
Share
BitcoinEthereumNews2026/03/19 11:49
Headwind Helps Best Wallet Token

Headwind Helps Best Wallet Token

The post Headwind Helps Best Wallet Token appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Google has announced the launch of a new open-source protocol called Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) in partnership with Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation, and 60 other organizations. This allows AI agents to make payments on behalf of users using various methods such as real-time bank transfers, credit and debit cards, and, most importantly, stablecoins. Let’s explore in detail what this could mean for the broader cryptocurrency markets, and also highlight a presale crypto (Best Wallet Token) that could explode as a result of this development. Google’s Push for Stablecoins Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) uses digital contracts known as ‘Intent Mandates’ and ‘Verifiable Credentials’ to ensure that AI agents undertake only those payments authorized by the user. Mandates, by the way, are cryptographically signed, tamper-proof digital contracts that act as verifiable proof of a user’s instruction. For example, let’s say you instruct an AI agent to never spend more than $200 in a single transaction. This instruction is written into an Intent Mandate, which serves as a digital contract. Now, whenever the AI agent tries to make a payment, it must present this mandate as proof of authorization, which will then be verified via the AP2 protocol. Alongside this, Google has also launched the A2A x402 extension to accelerate support for the Web3 ecosystem. This production-ready solution enables agent-based crypto payments and will help reshape the growth of cryptocurrency integration within the AP2 protocol. Google’s inclusion of stablecoins in AP2 is a massive vote of confidence in dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies and a huge step toward making them a mainstream payment option. This widens stablecoin usage beyond trading and speculation, positioning them at the center of the consumption economy. The recent enactment of the GENIUS Act in the U.S. gives stablecoins more structure and legal support. Imagine paying for things like data crawls, per-task…
Share
BitcoinEthereumNews2025/09/18 01:27