Ripple Enters Wall Street Leveraged Finance: Provides Funding for Leveraged ETFs Tracking Nvidia, SanDisk, Tapping into Traditional Banking Business

On October 8, Ripple entered the leveraged equity financing market through its Prime brokerage arm, Ripple Prime, providing funding for leveraged ETFs that bet on individual stocks such as Nvidia and SanDisk, as well as major indices, moving into a business domain historically dominated by large banks and securities firms.

Ripple acquired multi-asset Prime broker Hidden Road in 2025 for $1.25 billion, gaining clearing, financing, and trading capabilities across equities, bonds, foreign exchange, and digital asset markets. Ripple Prime currently offers leveraged exposure to funds via total return swaps (TRS) and charges financing fees. For example, the Tradr 2X Long SNDK Daily ETF pays Ripple the overnight bank funding rate plus 4 percentage points, translating to an annualized financing cost of approximately 8% at current rates, excluding ETF management fees.

Morningstar Direct data shows that the U.S. market has 593 leveraged ETFs with over $256 billion in assets under management, of which 426 track individual stocks. As banks face stricter capital and risk regulations, non-bank institutions such as Ripple Prime, Jane Street, and Clear Street are gaining more market share. Ripple launched its Delta One business in August this year, offering TRS linked to U.S. equities, indices, and digital assets, and disclosed regulatory net capital exceeding $1 billion; Ripple has not yet disclosed specific revenue from its leveraged ETF financing business or the proportion using XRP/XRP Ledger.

[BlockBeats]