Ripple is spending approximately $4 billion to integrate major trading, financial tools, payments, and custody into a single integrated system.

The RLUSD pilot aims to settle real card payments and corporate payments on-chain, then sync the results back to ERP and TMS systems.

To scale, Ripple needs strong controls, including clear reserves, strict compliance checks, and transparent accounting rules.

Success will be reflected in the data through faster settlements, lower costs, and consistent real-world transaction volumes every day.

Ripple is preparing to play a larger role in traditional finance. In an interview at Swell 2025, the company described its approximately $4 billion acquisition spree as the foundation for moving institutional funds alongside existing bank workflows on the XRP Ledger.

This momentum comes from:

• A new $500 million financing round, valuing the company at $40 billion
• A deal to acquire multi-asset prime broker Hidden Road for approximately $1.25 billion
• The Ripple USD (RLUSD) pilot in collaboration with Mastercard, WebBank, and Gemini, aimed at on-chain settlement of card payments.

Overall, the plan encompasses integration with financial and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems already used by banks and corporations through custody by Metaco, prime broker access, and stablecoin-based settlements.

Prime Brokerage and Credit: Ripple has agreed to acquire non-bank prime broker Hidden Road for approximately $1.25 billion, providing institutions with unified market access, clearing, financing, and the option to use RLUSD as eligible collateral when supported.

Financial Software Integration: A deal worth approximately $1 billion with GTreasury connects Ripple to corporate treasury management systems (TMS) and ERP workflows, including cash positioning, foreign exchange, risk management, and reconciliation. This allows on-chain settlements to be reflected in existing financial systems.

Stablecoin Payment Stack: The acquisition of Rail for about $200 million adds virtual accounts, automated back-office tools, and cross-border stablecoin payment capabilities. It serves as an operational layer, routing RLUSD through real business-to-business (B2B) payment flows.

Bank-grade Custody and Control: The acquisition of Metaco in 2023 provides segregation of duties, policy engines, and institutional-grade key management for tokens, stablecoin reserves, and corporate wallets.

Card and Merchant Settlement Pilot: In collaboration with Mastercard, WebBank (the issuer of the Gemini card), and Gemini, Ripple is testing RLUSD settlements on the XRP Ledger. This initiative marks an early step towards transitioning traditional fiat card batches to stablecoin-based settlements.

Capital and Distribution: The new $500 million financing provides Ripple with the means to integrate its acquisitions and expand its sales to banks, brokers, and large enterprises.

Each project targets different functionalities, including prime access, financial connectivity, payment operations, custody, and the capital that ties them together. This structure aims to reduce overlap and demonstrate how all parts fit together.

Did you know? In corporate finance, most CFOs still reconcile by importing batch files into ERP and TMS platforms. Any on-chain settlement that can automatically generate these files helps reduce manual work at month-end.

First, the finance team sets basic rules in the company's TMS, defining approval limits, currency caps, and eligible beneficiaries.

Next comes funding. The finance team transfers cash from operating accounts and converts a portion into RLUSD or XRP through connected bank channels or prime broker access, assigning wallets for each subsidiary or business unit.

When creating payments, the CFO decides how to handle foreign exchange, choosing to convert before sending or upon receipt, and routes transactions through Ripple's payment stack, with the option to convert at the last mile fiat delivery.

Settlements are nearly instantaneous. Ledger events, invoice references, and payment details flow back to ERP and TMS platforms, allowing for automatic reconciliation.

Custody can be handled in-house, using role-based policies and hardware security modules (HSM) and multi-party computation (MPC) controls, or managed by qualified custodians. Segregation of duties ensures compliance with corporate governance policies.

Throughout the month, real-time trading limits, travel rules, and know your customer (KYC) checks, along with thorough audits, help maintain control and support month-end settlements.

Brokers or market desks connect to spot and derivatives venues through prime broker APIs for centralized market access, credit, clearing, and settlement. RLUSD or XRP can be used as collateral according to platform rules. Each platform decides how much of that collateral counts towards loans or trades (known as the discount) and which asset to prioritize for additional funding if needed (known as margin priority).

Financing is activated as needed, whether periodic or intraday, against approved collateral, with real-time visibility into limit usage. Positions are netted at the end of the day, with any excess funds transferred to the finance department for working capital or short-term gains. Transaction and position data feed into risk, profit and loss (PnL), and compliance dashboards, with records archived for audit and regulatory review.

In the card pilot, acquirers net a day's worth of merchant transactions and prepare a batch. The net is settled in RLUSD on the XRP Ledger, with the option to convert immediately to fiat currency at the sponsoring bank.

The finance team imports batch files, closes accounts receivable, and updates cash positions in ERP and TMS platforms as usual.

Disputes and refunds continue to follow existing card network rules, with any fiat adjustments directly mapped to accounting entries. This means the finance team does not need to modify existing month-end settlement processes.

Did you know? Auditors are increasingly demanding a deterministic link between payment instructions, their on-chain transactions, and corresponding accounting entries. API-native evidence packages can significantly shorten audit times.

If Ripple or its affiliates obtain a banking charter and a U.S. Federal Reserve master account, customer setups will change. Stablecoin reserves could be held directly at the Fed rather than through commercial intermediaries, reducing counterparty and settlement risks. Payment flows would also gain clearer finality windows and fewer intermediaries, which is crucial for CFOs measuring costs, delays, and reconciliations at every segment.

Scale depends on maintaining bank-grade discipline. There will be scrutiny over reserve segregation, stress testing, intraday liquidity management, and whether RLUSD can serve as a cash equivalent in specific situations. Independent proof and transparent reserve asset visibility may be threshold requirements for many finance teams.

For card settlements and merchant payments, alignment on disputes, refunds, chargebacks, and consumer protection is critical. On-chain components must map one-to-one with existing rules so that operations teams do not need to redesign their exception handling processes.

Cross-border payments require KYC and anti-money laundering (AML) processes that meet corresponding bank standards, as well as reliable virtual asset service provider (VASP) information exchange and sanctions screening. Institutions will look for standardized data payloads, including beneficiary information, purpose codes, and audit trails directly integrated into compliance systems.

Finance teams need clear policies defining when to classify RLUSD as cash, restricted cash, or digital assets, how to confirm foreign exchange (FX), and how to record network fees. ERP connectors, detailed sub-ledgers, and tight month-end reporting packages will determine whether "next-day" operations function as a regular process.

Did you know? The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) travel rule sets a data-sharing threshold for VASPs, typically around $1,000 or €1,000. This is why stablecoin payment infrastructure emphasizes standardized beneficiary data and purpose codes.

Most companies in this space focus on a single specialty:

• Stablecoin issuers focus on the inflow and outflow of tokens and fiat.
• Custodians provide custody and policy control.
• Payment companies handle fund transfers.
• Financial vendors connect to ERP systems.
• Prime brokers provide market access and credit.

Ripple's bet is to package these components for institutions. The goal is to enable finance teams to seamlessly transition from financial instructions to funding via RLUSD or XRP, and then execute in payments or prime brokerage. Ultimately, custody is handled in a unified manner, without the need to piece together multiple vendors.

The benefit is achieving straight-through processing through a single client setup, unified controls, shared data models, and fewer reconciliation disruptions.

The risk lies in breadth exceeding depth, as specialists may still outperform a full-suite solution in their specific areas. For Wall Street buyers, the key question is whether a full-suite solution can reduce total costs and delays across the entire workflow while maintaining bank-grade controls.

If this bridge is real, it will first appear in unobtrusive places, such as financial dashboards, card settlement files, and audit signatures.

The signs are quite simple:

• RLUSD flows in merchant batches and vendor payments
• Prime, financial, and payment components operate under a single client contract
• Specific charters and master account developments determine the location of reserves and how settlement finality is achieved.

If these signals begin to emerge, and corridor-level data shows cost and speed advantages over SWIFT and ACH networks, it will be a turning point. The story will transcend headline acquisitions and begin to take shape in the everyday infrastructure of finance.

Related: Why Everyone in Crypto Suddenly Talks About RWAs in 2025

Original article: “How Ripple Plans to Bridge Crypto and Wall Street in Its $4B Expansion”

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