Ripple takes aim at Wall Street with leveraged ETF financing

Ripple’s reach now extends across much of the crypto industry, and the company is beginning to make inroads into Wall Street. Global investment manager Brevan Howard just scaled up its partnership with the crypto firm. Ripple will now provide multi-asset prime brokerage, clearing, and financing services across its funds, through its unified platform Ripple Prime.

This latest agreement strengthens the existing relationship between the companies, which began when Brevan Howard-affiliated funds joined Ripple’s $500 million investment round in 2025.

Ripple Prime’s Kimmel applauds partnership with Brevan Howard

So far, both Ripple Prime and Brevan Howard executives have welcomed the collaboration. For starters, Noel Kimmel, President of Ripple Prime, stated, “There are few firms equipped to provide the next generation of prime services that sophisticated investors expect, and Brevan Howard’s trust in Ripple Prime is recognition of our strong competitive position and cross-asset capabilities.”

Alan McGroarty, Group COO of Brevan Howard, also commented, “Ripple has built a differentiated platform that we expect will provide our investment teams with increased operational ease and capital efficiency.”

Lately, the market for leveraged ETFs has expanded significantly. Data from Morningstar Direct indicate that the U.S. now hosts 593 leveraged ETFs, with total assets under management exceeding $256 billion. At the moment, 426 of those leveraged funds are focused on individual stocks.

Ripple formally entered the swap financing market through its $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road last year. It rebranded the brokerage service as Ripple Prime, which has since grown exponentially.

The brokerage platform recently earned a BBB issuer rating from Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA). Not to mention, it added Hyperliquid, its first direct integration with a decentralized finance platform, and now revealed its latest collaboration with Brevan Howard.

Still, Ripple is not the only non-bank company engaged in the leveraged ETF business. Firms like Jane Street and Clear Street have increased their involvement, aided partially by tighter risk regulation that continues to put pressure on the banking sector. The investment firms behind the leveraged ETFs are often start-ups with no banking background.

Todd Sohn, chief ETF strategist at Baird Strategas, has contended that the expansion of the leveraged ETF market and rising demand are encouraging more non-banking firms to enter the space, particularly because of the potential for higher swap fees.

The expansion also highlights how prime brokerage is becoming an increasingly important part of the digital asset industry’s push into traditional finance. Prime brokers typically provide institutional clients with services such as trade execution, financing, clearing, and custody, allowing investment firms to manage multiple activities through a single provider.

For Ripple, the Brevan Howard deal would strengthen Ripple Prime’s position with institutional clients, as well as in the crypto-native market. This is particularly true because hedge funds and other professional investors are seeking infrastructure on the platform to connect traditional financial markets with digital assets.

Meritz Securities signed a pact with Ripple

Meanwhile, Meritz Securities, a South Korean financial services firm, has also entered into a strategic agreement with Ripple to examine the application of the blockchain company’s custody and tokenization technology in South Korea’s capital market. 

The critical factor that drove momentum toward the pact is the deadline: February 4, 2027. On this particular date, South Korea’s new tokenized securities regulations come into force, and both firms want their infrastructures and foundations in place before then. 

For the time being, however, this partnership will serve as a review rather than a product launch. Both firms intend to work with existing securities laws before moving to the next level. 

Meritz is currently exploring various possibilities within the digital asset space, ranging from spot ETFs to fractional investment solutions, STOs, trading venues, and even won-backed stablecoins. The collaboration with Ripple could very well serve as the basis for these services.

Ripple has signed similar agreements before. For instance, South Africa’s Absa CIB has launched a bank-backed crypto custody service in partnership with Ripple. But before the product launch, the two took time to lock down the corporate infrastructure and build a solid foundation. 

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