Ripple Prime swaps crypto for stocks, now charging ~8% to 2X your Nvidia dreams 📈

Ripple is financing leveraged U.S. stock exchange-traded funds through its prime brokerage division, Ripple Prime, entering a corner of Wall Street historically served by major banks and securities firms, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday. The activity stems from Ripple's $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, a multi-asset prime brokerage, completed in October 2025, an established operation that clears trades, finances positions and handles transactions across stocks, bonds, currencies and digital assets.

Leveraged ETFs allow funds to amplify the daily moves of individual stocks or indexes without buying the underlying securities outright. Instead, they enter into total return swaps in which a broker provides the exposure, hedges its own risk through stock purchases or other trades, and collects a financing fee from the fund. The Journal reported that the Tradr 2X Long SNDK Daily ETF, which targets twice the daily movement of memory-chip maker Sandisk, pays Ripple the overnight bank funding rate plus four percentage points. At prevailing rates, that puts the annualized financing charge at roughly 8%, applied to the swap exposure and separate from the ETF's management fee.

The U.S. leveraged ETF market now includes 593 funds holding more than $256 billion, of which 426 track individual stocks, according to Morningstar Direct data. Tighter bank capital and risk requirements have opened space for nonbank prime brokers such as Ripple Prime, Jane Street and Clear Street to take share in this financing.

Ripple launched its Delta One business in August, offering total return swaps tied to U.S. stocks, market indexes and digital assets, and said the operation held more than $1 billion in regulatory net capital alongside a completed $275 million senior debt offering to support further growth. On Tuesday, the company announced an expanded agreement with hedge fund manager Brevan Howard under which Ripple Prime will provide brokerage, clearing and financing services across asset classes.

Because leveraged ETFs reset exposure daily, sharp moves in individual stocks can leave financing firms exposed if a fund's assets are insufficient to cover losses. Ripple has not disclosed how much revenue its leveraged ETF financing generates or how much of the activity uses $XRP or the $XRP Ledger.