Ripple CEO "XRP Now Adopted as Institutional Collateral"

▲ XRP

As Ripple confirmed its plan to position XRP as a collateral asset across institutional platforms through its prime brokerage business, the debate over XRP's real-world utility has once again shifted to the institutional financial market.

According to crypto media outlet The Crypto Basic on May 6 (local time), Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated at Consensus 2026 in Miami, discussing institutional crypto adoption and real-world use cases, that Ripple Prime is enabling XRP to be utilized as collateral on various institutional platforms.

Garlinghouse noted that while Bitcoin (BTC) had surpassed $80,000 for the first time since January, the overall market movement remained slow despite many positive signals. He explained that cryptocurrencies are gradually reaching a more practical stage, and institutions are beginning to see the real utility of digital assets, especially in terms of collateral and leverage.

Garlinghouse also mentioned Ripple's recent acquisition and prime brokerage service strategy. He stated that the acquisition of Hidden Road plays a crucial role in this strategy, contributing to making XRP usable as collateral on various institutional platforms. He said, “It's a big deal that our company's Hidden Road, that is, our prime brokerage business, is making XRP good collateral on multiple institutional platforms.”

These remarks came amidst existing discussions that RLUSD would be used as a core collateral asset in Ripple Prime. Ripple announced in April 2025 that it would acquire Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, subsequently rebranding the business as Ripple Prime. At the time, Ripple confirmed that Hidden Road planned to use RLUSD as collateral across its prime brokerage services, which handle over $3 trillion in annual clearing volume.

Garlinghouse stated in July 2025 that RLUSD was approved as a collateral asset across all Hidden Road services. Due to this, some market participants have pointed out that Ripple Prime's primary collateral and margin asset is RLUSD, not XRP. Criticism was also raised that XRP is unsuitable as an institutional collateral asset due to its volatility, which can see movements of 5-10% in a single day.

The recent debate reignited when the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) mentioned Ripple Prime as a participant in its tokenization initiative. On May 4, DTCC announced progress in its DTC tokenization service, a project aimed at bringing tokenized assets like stocks, ETFs, and U.S. Treasury bonds into existing post-trade systems. DTCC holds assets worth approximately $114 trillion, and Ripple Prime is included in the DTCC industry working group alongside over 50 financial institutions, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Citadel, Bank of America, Nasdaq, Robinhood, Ondo Finance, Circle, BitGo, and Anchorage Digital.

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