XRP and Ripple Prime: Why Hasn't the Price Followed Ripple's Growth?
Ripple owns a prime broker clearing over $3 trillion a year, yet XRP sat near $1.46. How RLUSD, tiny fees and DTCC choices explain the gap, and what to watch.
Key takeaways
- Ripple Prime, formerly Hidden Road, clears more than $3 trillion a year for over 300 institutions, according to Ripple, and its revenue has more than tripled since the acquisition.
- Inside Ripple Prime, most of the money moves as RLUSD, Ripple's dollar stablecoin, not as XRP.
- XRP is the gas token on the XRP Ledger, but fees are fractions of a penny, so ledger activity does little to reduce supply.
- Brad Garlinghouse has said Ripple will use other technologies where XRP is less suited, so Ripple can grow without XRP capturing all of that growth.
- Three public signals to watch: outside firms accepting XRP as collateral, the DTCC naming the XRP Ledger, and Ripple Prime clearing showing up on-ledger in volume.
Ripple now owns a Wall Street prime broker. According to Ripple, the business clears more than $3 trillion of trades a year for over 300 institutions, and its revenue has more than tripled since the purchase. Yet on September 24, 2026, XRP was trading at around $1.46.
That gap is the question behind this Bullrunners video: if Ripple is building the pipes of Wall Street, why isn’t XRP behaving like it? The host answers it using clips of Ripple’s own executives, and the answer matters for anyone holding XRP on the assumption that Ripple’s success and XRP’s price are the same thing.
What is a prime broker?
A prime broker is a one-stop shop that lets hedge funds, trading desks and market makers trade, clear and finance many kinds of assets through a single account.
The video uses a simple picture. Imagine a hedge fund trading in 50 places: Bitcoin on one exchange, futures in Chicago, currencies with a bank, bonds somewhere else. Without a prime broker, it needs 50 accounts, 50 sets of paperwork and 50 separate piles of cash posted as security. A prime broker gives it one account, where everything is cleared, financed and netted against everything else.
If you have ever had money on three exchanges and had to shuffle it around to cover a trade, you have felt a small version of that problem. The point the video stresses is that whoever runs a prime broker sees an enormous amount of the money moving through the system.
In a clip shown in the video, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse notes that prime brokers have historically been owned by large commercial banks such as JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, and that newer players like Hidden Road are growing quickly by adding digital assets to the mix.
What did Ripple buy, and how big is it?
Ripple bought Hidden Road, now called Ripple Prime. Per the video:
- April 8, 2025: Ripple announced the deal for $1.25 billion, the biggest in its history, paid partly in XRP.
- July 2025: RLUSD, Ripple’s dollar stablecoin, was approved as collateral across all Hidden Road services.
- October 2025: The deal closed and Hidden Road became Ripple Prime.
- November 2025: Ripple Prime began offering XRP spot trading and cross margin to US clients.
- December 2025: Ripple received conditional approval for a national trust bank charter.
- March 2, 2026: Ripple Prime was added to the participant directory of the National Securities Clearing Corporation, part of the DTCC, which clears essentially every US stock trade.
- May 2026: The DTCC listed Ripple Prime in its roughly 50-firm tokenization working group, alongside JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and Citi.
At Ripple Prime’s quarterly webinar, the company described itself as one of the largest non-bank prime brokers in the world, clearing more than $3 trillion annually. Its international chief executive said revenue has grown more than three times since the acquisition. The host’s view is that this is a real, fast-growing business, not “all partnerships and no business.”
Why hasn’t XRP moved with Ripple’s growth?
The short answer from the video: inside Ripple’s own system, most of the money doing the work is RLUSD, not XRP.
When the deal was announced, Bloomberg noted that Ripple appeared to want to use Hidden Road to broaden adoption of its stablecoin as collateral. Jack McDonald, who runs stablecoins at Ripple, confirms this in a clip: RLUSD is fully integrated into Ripple Prime’s flows, so customers can borrow RLUSD and post it as collateral.
The video argues this makes sense for institutions. If you are moving a hedge fund’s margin, you want something worth exactly one dollar the next morning. An asset that can move 10% in a day cannot do that job. That is why large RLUSD headlines often do little for XRP’s price.
Does every RLUSD payment use XRP?
Yes, but in very small amounts. McDonald describes XRP as the native gas token of the XRP Ledger, in the same way BTC is to Bitcoin or ETH is to Ethereum. Every transaction on the ledger, including stablecoin payments, requires XRP for fees, so the utility is there but “abstracted away.”
The host adds the math that was not done on camera. Fees are fractions of a penny per transaction by design. One analysis from July 2026, cited in the video, put total XRP burned in fees since 2012 at roughly 14 million XRP out of 100 billion. The video’s conclusion: fees make the ledger useful, but they do not make the coin scarce. A thesis that trillions in Ripple Prime volume will burn through XRP’s supply is not supported by those numbers.
Garlinghouse, in another clip, is open about this. He describes XRP as scalable, fast and cheap per transaction, good for some uses and “probably less good for other things,” where Ripple will use other technologies. If Ripple grows from tens of billions to trillions in payments and XRP does not get 100% of that pie, he says, he is happy. The video reads this as the CEO saying XRP is one tool in the box, and that Ripple can win without XRP winning to the same degree.
Three ways XRP could be pulled into Ripple Prime
The video lists three routes, and argues holders should know which one they are actually counting on.
| Route | Current state, per the video | What would need to happen |
|---|---|---|
| Fees | Real but tiny by design | Not a meaningful supply driver on its own |
| Collateral | Offered at Ripple Prime since November 2025; a few outside venues such as derivatives exchange Bitnomial accept XRP as margin | Major clearing houses and banks Ripple doesn’t own accept XRP |
| Settlement (bridge currency) | Used in some Ripple payment corridors alongside stablecoins | Ripple Prime’s clearing moves onto the XRP Ledger in size |
On settlement, Garlinghouse highlights XRP’s 3-to-5-second settlement, fractions-of-a-penny costs and over 4 billion completed transactions. Ripple Prime’s international head says the firm builds “with the XRP Ledger and XRP in mind” and that moving prime and clearing on-chain is a direction they are “trying to move into.” The host notes the phrasing: a direction, not a finished move.
Has the DTCC picked the XRP Ledger?
No, not as of the video. The host suggests searching “DTCC Stellar” to see what being chosen looks like.
According to the video, in late May 2026 the DTCC announced it would connect the Stellar network to its tokenized securities platform, naming the chain publicly, and Stellar’s coin rose more than 80%. When the DTCC ran its first live tokenized trades on July 15, 2026, it used two networks, Besu and Canton, not the XRP Ledger.
Ripple Prime’s March listing is as a broker. The video says the trades it covers are cleared through Pershing, part of BNY, on ordinary non-blockchain rails. It is a real milestone for Ripple the company, but it is not XRP inside the DTCC.
The bull case the video still sees
The host is not dismissive. In a clip, Ripple Prime’s international head points to the foreign exchange market: in the mid-1990s it handled about $2 trillion, and today closer to $8 trillion. Part of that growth, he says, came after prime brokers arrived and gave institutions access without having to face every bank directly. He sees a similar story for digital assets.
The video frames this as the long-term bet for XRP holders: that Ripple sits in the prime broker seat when institutional money arrives, and routes at least part of it through its own ledger and coin. But it notes the limit of the analogy. The story says the plumber does well. It does not say which asset flows through the pipes.
A three-question test for XRP headlines
The most practical part of the video is a simple check. The next time a post claims the pipes are finished and the price is about to jump, ask:
- Is the flow actually on the XRP Ledger?
- Is anyone outside Ripple using XRP for this?
- Has the DTCC named the XRP Ledger as a chain?
If all three answers are no, the video suggests, the headline is about Ripple the company, not XRP the asset. If any is yes, it is worth researching further.
The host also recommends writing down, for any holding, what would have to happen for it to rise and how you would know. Knowing in advance what would prove your thesis wrong makes a flat year easier to read and a loud headline easier to ignore.
What to watch next
The video names three dated, public signals that would change the answer:
- Outside collateral: a major clearing house or bank that Ripple does not own announcing it accepts XRP as collateral.
- DTCC chain selection: the DTCC or its working group naming the XRP Ledger, as it named Stellar. The full launch of its tokenization services was due in October 2026, making that the next document to read.
- On-ledger clearing: Ripple Prime’s clearing visibly showing up on the XRP Ledger in meaningful volume.
Until one of those happens, the video’s position is that Ripple’s growth and XRP’s price can keep moving separately.
Frequently asked questions
What is Ripple Prime?
Ripple Prime is the prime brokerage Ripple bought as Hidden Road, announced on April 8, 2025 for $1.25 billion and closed in October 2025. Per Ripple, it clears more than $3 trillion a year and serves over 300 institutional clients.
Does Ripple Prime use XRP?
Partly. According to the video, most collateral and money flow runs through RLUSD, Ripple's dollar stablecoin, while XRP is used as the ledger's gas token and is offered for spot trading and cross margin to US clients since November 2025.
Do XRP Ledger fees burn enough XRP to reduce supply?
According to an analysis cited in the video, about 14 million XRP had been burned in fees since 2012 as of July 2026, out of 100 billion. The video's view is that fees make the ledger useful but do not make the coin scarce.
Is the XRP Ledger part of the DTCC's tokenization platform?
Not as of the video. The DTCC named Stellar for its tokenized securities platform in May 2026 and ran its first live tokenized trades on Besu and Canton in July. Ripple Prime is listed in the NSCC directory as a broker, but its trades clear through Pershing on traditional rails.
Why hasn't XRP's price moved with Ripple's business growth?
The video argues it is because most of the flow moves as RLUSD, XRP fees are tiny by design, and clearing has not yet moved onto the XRP Ledger in size. Ripple can grow as a company without XRP capturing that growth.
Education and commentary only, not financial advice. Crypto is volatile and you can lose money. Do your own research and speak to a qualified advisor before making investment decisions. Figures and quotes are as reported in the video on October 8, 2026 and may have changed since.
