Brevan Howard Taps Ripple Prime for Brokerage and Clearing

Brevan Howard will use Ripple Prime for prime brokerage, clearing and financing across multiple asset classes, the two firms announced on Oct 6. The deal covers funds managed by the alternative investment manager and spans traditional and digital markets, according to the joint announcement. Unchained reported the agreement as an expansion of an existing relationship rather than a first contact.

"Ripple has built a differentiated platform that we expect will provide our investment teams with increased operational ease and capital efficiency," Alan McGroarty, group chief operating officer at Brevan Howard, said in the release. Noel Kimmel, president of Ripple Prime, answered in the same statement that the manager's trust shows the unit's competitive standing and cross-asset reach. Cointelegraph carried both quotes in its Oct 6 coverage.

The companies disclosed no financial terms. They did not say which Brevan Howard funds sit in scope or when the services start, a limit Unchained flagged in its write-up. What is public is the shape of the mandate, which gives the manager one venue for brokerage, clearing and financing across products instead of separate desks per market.

Brevan Howard runs about $35 billion for institutional clients including sovereign wealth funds, corporate and public pension plans, foundations and endowments. The firm focuses on global macro and digital asset strategies and employs roughly 1,000 people across offices from London and New York to Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi, the release says. That client weight makes the mandate a reference win for Ripple Prime as it courts large allocators.

From backer to client

The manager already knew Ripple from the cap table. Funds managed by Brevan Howard affiliates joined Ripple's $500 million strategic investment in November 2025, a round led by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities that valued the company at $40 billion. Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital and Marshall Wace also took part, according to that account. In March, Ripple announced a $750 million share buyback at a $50 billion valuation.

Ripple Prime is the former Hidden Road, a non-bank prime broker that Ripple agreed to buy for $1.25 billion in April 2025 and took over that October. At the time of the deal Ripple said Hidden Road cleared $3 trillion a year for more than 300 institutional customers. Cointelegraph recalled the $1.25 billion price tag in its report on the Brevan Howard move.

Ripple has fed the unit with capital and new products since the takeover. In February it added support for Hyperliquid, the decentralized derivatives exchange, widening institutional access to on-chain liquidity. In May it lined up as much as $200 million in debt financing from funds managed by Neuberger Specialty Finance, money set aside for lending to Ripple Prime clients. The company said at the time that unit revenue had tripled year over year since the acquisition, according to the build-out account.

The release frames the deal as a response to demand. It speaks of growing interest from top-tier managers for prime brokerage across traditional and digital markets inside a regulated, enterprise-grade setup, with one platform meant to lift capital efficiency and keep operations simple. Brevan Howard now gets that single surface for its funds, covering brokerage, clearing and financing without splitting activity across separate venues per asset class.

Ripple's own background fills out the other side of the pairing. Founded in 2012, the company sells blockchain-based payments, custody, prime brokerage and treasury management, and says it holds more than 85 licenses for the work. Its stablecoin RLUSD and the digital asset XRP sit underneath those product lines, bridging traditional and digital finance in the firm's description, and Brevan Howard describes its edge as macro thinking, trade structuring and risk management, per the joint release.

August brought two more steps. Ripple Prime sold $275 million in senior unsecured notes, which credit agency KBRA rated BBB, and started a Delta One business selling total return swaps on U.S.-listed equities, indices and digital assets. Those moves sit in the record Unchained assembled of the build-out. The Brevan Howard mandate now tests whether that shelf of services can hold a $35 billion manager's day-to-day flow.