Ripple is pursuing what its proponents describe as an Amazon-style model for financial infrastructure, placing XRP and Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD at the settlement layer of a vertically integrated stack. In a video, Digital Ascension Group CEO Jake Claver argues that owning core infrastructure can yield lower marginal costs, faster iteration, and higher switching costs once institutional workflows are embedded, mirroring Amazon’s approach of owning platforms and logistics rather than merely selling products. The effort is pitched as building a comprehensive platform that underpins large-scale institutional finance.
Claver notes a roughly $2.45 billion acquisitions spree in the last seven months of 2025, described as “pillars for a master plan” rather than opportunistic deals. The centerpiece was the $1.25 billion purchase of Hidden Road in April, now rebranded as Ripple Prime, positioned as the prime brokerage backbone for large-scale trading and settlement. Additional elements include Rail for about $200 million, a 24/7 stablecoin payments platform; GTreasury acquired for $1 billion, treasury software used by multinationals; and Palisade, announced in November 2025 with terms undisclosed, framed as wallet-as-a-service infrastructure.
Hidden Road is slated to use RLUSD as collateral across prime brokerage products, creating organic demand for Ripple’s stablecoin among institutional clients. Rail is expected to process more than 10% of a $36 billion global B2B stablecoin payments market in 2025, while GTreasury targets CFOs and treasurers through software embedded in corporate finance workflows, handling about $12.5 trillion in annual payment volume. Palisade is described as the “hot wallet” layer, complementing custody solutions and enabling high-velocity transaction use cases. XRP was trading around $2.10 per token at the time of reporting.
Leave a Reply