Ripple has secured a $200 million credit facility from funds managed by Neuberger Berman to expand the lending capacity of Ripple Prime, its institutional prime brokerage unit. The platform provides margin lending, clearing, and trade execution services to hedge funds and trading firms across crypto and traditional markets. The deal was announced on Monday, May 11.
Deal Terms and Structure
The facility is structured as a debt instrument. Neuberger Berman does not receive equity in Ripple. Interest rate and repayment terms were not disclosed, and the company did not say how much of the $200 million has already been drawn by Ripple Prime clients.
Neuberger Berman manages more than $560 billion in assets and ranks among the ten largest independent investment managers in the world. The firm focuses on multi-asset strategies, credit, and alternative asset management for pension funds, insurers, and sovereign wealth funds.
Ripple Prime president Noel Kimmel said the additional capital would let the unit serve a broader range of institutional clients. The company did not name specific target client numbers or geographic priorities.
The deal comes during a gradual recovery of institutional crypto financing following the 2022 sector collapse, which saw several major prime brokers and lenders file for bankruptcy. A TradFi manager of Neuberger Berman's scale committing capital shows the industry has rebuilt enough credibility to attract structured credit from mainstream asset managers. Access to those resources lets Ripple Prime compete for larger mandates that require significant leveraged positions.
Financing at the company level through a debt facility, rather than a token sale or ICO, sets this deal apart from typical crypto fundraising in prior years.
From Hidden Road to Ripple Prime
Ripple acquired global prime broker Hidden Road in April 2025. The roughly $1.25 billion deal closed about six months later. The transaction marked the first known acquisition of a global prime broker by a crypto-native company.
At the time, Hidden Road processed about $3 trillion in annual trading volume and served more than 300 institutional clients. Its services covered clearing, financing, and trade execution across digital and traditional assets. Clients included hedge funds, market makers, and large institutional investors.
After rebranding as Ripple Prime, the unit tripled its revenue, according to the company. Ripple did not release detailed financials, confirming neither profitability nor exact revenue figures.
The new facility allows Ripple Prime to grow margin lending without straining Ripple's own balance sheet. This approach mirrors how traditional prime brokers fund their lending books and differs sharply from the unsecured retail deposit models used by crypto lenders that collapsed in 2022. The Hidden Road deal gave Ripple a direct seat in traditional market infrastructure: the platform remains one of the few crypto-native firms with a genuine clearing and brokerage track record.
Products and New Integrations
Ripple Prime serves hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, and other institutional participants that need a single clearing environment spanning crypto and traditional assets. The platform lets clients hold digital assets and conventional securities in one account, cutting settlement times and operational costs.
The expanded credit line increases margin lending available against crypto collateral. Clients can take on larger positions without pulling assets off the platform to seek outside financing.
Last month, crypto exchange Bullish deepened its Ripple Prime integration, giving institutional clients direct access to a regulated Bitcoin options market. The Ripple USD stablecoin (RLUSD) is accepted as collateral for those trades. RLUSD's market capitalization exceeds $1.5 billion according to CoinMarketCap. The token is issued on the XRP Ledger network and continues adding integration partners.
The platform also acts as a settlement hub for clients trading across multiple exchanges who want a single margin pool. Ripple Prime accepts a range of collateral types, including tokenized bonds and stablecoins.
Market Reaction and Outlook
The Ripple-Neuberger Berman deal reflects growing demand from traditional asset managers to participate in crypto infrastructure through debt, rather than equity, instruments. 2026 is shaping up as the year of structured credit for large crypto platforms.
Institutional prime brokerage in crypto is rebuilding. The collapse of Genesis, Silvergate, and BlockFi in 2022-2023 left hedge funds with few reliable counterparties and limited regulated infrastructure. Both gaps are now narrowing through licensing and consolidation. Demand for prime brokerage is also rising alongside the growth of Bitcoin ETFs and tokenized securities, drawing in funds that previously avoided the sector.
XRP, Ripple's native network asset, was trading at $1.45 at the time of publication. Analysts expect the credit facility to primarily improve Ripple Prime's operational capacity rather than move the token price directly.
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