Ripple said today that its institutional prime brokerage arm, Ripple Prime, has enabled support for Hyperliquid, opening a new path for institutional clients to tap onchain derivatives liquidity. The move lets institutions cross-margin their DeFi exposures with other asset classes supported by Ripple Prime, including digital assets, FX, fixed income, OTC swaps and cleared derivatives, all within a single account and counterparty relationship.
The integration is meant to give institutions a smoother, more capital-efficient way to access DeFi venues without fragmenting their trading and risk operations. By bringing Hyperliquid into the fold, Ripple Prime will let clients manage positions on an onchain derivatives venue while keeping centralized risk management, consolidated margining and a single point of settlement and reporting. That consolidation, Ripple argues, reduces operational friction and lowers the capital burden that often accompanies trading across siloed platforms.
“At Ripple Prime, we are excited to continue leading the way in merging decentralized finance with traditional prime brokerage services, offering direct support to trading, yield generation and a wider range of digital assets,” said Michael Higgins, pointing to the strategic value of extending the platform into DeFi to meet institutional demand for greater efficiency and innovation.
Broader Market Trend
Industry observers say the integration is part of a broader trend. Prime brokers and custodians increasingly aim to offer unified access to both centralized markets and DeFi protocols because institutional flows demand the same custody, reporting and margining standards across every venue. Ripple Prime’s support for Hyperliquid positions the firm to serve clients who want the speed and composability of onchain derivatives while keeping the controls and capital efficiencies they expect from a global prime broker.
Founded in 2012, Ripple has steadily expanded from payments into custody, liquidity and treasury services for institutional clients, and its product stack includes the stablecoin RLUSD and the native token XRP, which underpin parts of Ripple’s liquidity and settlement offerings. The company frames the Hyperliquid integration as another step toward bridging traditional finance and next-generation decentralized infrastructure.
Institutions already on Ripple Prime won’t need to add new counterparties or rip up their existing collateral and margin arrangements to reach an on-chain derivatives market; they can do it through the same account and reporting structure they already trust. For Hyperliquid, partnering with an established multi-asset prime broker is more than a stamp of approval. It can draw steady institutional flow, deepen order books, and make the market feel safer and more usable.
Put another way, Ripple Prime and Hyperliquid are offering a sensible middle ground, keeping the familiar controls, oversight and capital efficiency of a centralized prime broker, while taking advantage of the speed, composability and innovation of on-chain execution. That mix could be exactly what cautious institutions need to move from curiosity to real participation in DeFi.