Ripple has expanded its financial operations into the leveraged exchange-traded fund market, a segment historically dominated by major banks and securities firms. Through its Ripple Prime division, the company is now providing financing to funds that seek to amplify daily movements of stocks and market indexes, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The move follows Ripple’s $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, completed in October 2025, which brought an institutional prime brokerage specializing in trade clearing, position financing, and transactions across stocks, bonds, currencies, and digital assets into Ripple’s operations.
In leveraged ETF financing, Ripple Prime provides financial exposure through instruments such as total return swaps and collects financing fees. As an example, the Tradr 2X Long SNDK Daily ETF, designed to deliver twice the daily movement of SanDisk shares, pays Ripple the overnight bank funding rate plus four percentage points—an annualized rate of approximately 8% on the swap exposure, separate from the ETF’s management fee.
The U.S. market currently has 593 leveraged ETFs managing more than $256 billion, including 426 funds tied to individual stocks, according to Morningstar Direct. Stricter bank capital and risk management requirements have created opportunities for nonbank firms such as Ripple Prime, Jane Street, and Clear Street. Ripple launched its Delta One business in August, offering total return swaps linked to U.S. stocks, market indexes, and digital assets, and reported more than $1 billion in regulatory net capital plus a $275 million senior debt offering. The company has also expanded its agreement with Brevan Howard to provide brokerage, clearing, and financing services across multiple asset classes.
Ripple has not disclosed how much revenue it generates from leveraged ETF financing or what proportion of these operations uses XRP or the XRP Ledger.
