Ripple Prime Moves Into US Equity Derivatives

Ripple Prime, the multi-asset prime brokerage arm of Ripple, has launched a Delta One service for institutional clients, taking it into US equity derivatives.

The desk lets clients execute total return swaps linked to US-listed equities, indexes and digital assets. Total return swaps give exposure to an asset's returns without requiring ownership of the underlying — the standard instrument for funds that want the position without the custody, the reporting or the balance sheet treatment.

The pitch

The service targets hedge funds and asset managers. Ripple says clients can face a single counterparty and cross-margin exposures across supported asset classes around the clock.

"The launch of our Delta One business is an important development for Ripple Prime and a natural extension of the platform we've built," said president Noel Kimmel.

The existing prime brokerage, clearing and financing business already covers foreign exchange, derivatives, fixed income and digital assets.

Which direction the convergence is running

The notable detail is that a crypto company is adding equities, not the reverse.

Cross-margining is the reason. A fund holding both digital assets and US equities currently posts collateral separately at different brokers with different hours; netting those exposures against one counterparty frees capital. Crypto markets already trade 24/7, so a firm built for continuous operation has an infrastructure argument that traditional prime brokers, running on market hours and overnight batch cycles, cannot easily match.