Ripple has expanded its institutional trading platform by adding direct access to decentralized derivatives markets, marking a notable shift in how the company approaches on-chain trading.
In a statement released on Feb. 4, Ripple announced that its prime brokerage arm, Ripple Prime, now supports trading and margining on Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange built on its own layer-1 blockchain.
The integration allows institutional clients to trade decentralized derivatives while managing risk alongside traditional assets such as foreign exchange, fixed income, OTC swaps, and cleared products. All positions are handled within a single counterparty framework, with centralized risk controls and consolidated margining.
Ripple said the move is designed to remove a major operational hurdle for institutions entering decentralized markets. Clients can now access on-chain perpetual futures without managing wallets or directly interacting with smart contracts, enabling DeFi derivatives to function more like traditional exchange-traded products within existing workflows.
“At Ripple Prime, we are excited to continue leading the way in merging decentralized finance with traditional prime brokerage services, offering direct support to trading, yield generation and a wider range of digital assets,” said Michael Higgins, International CEO of Ripple Prime.
The Hyperliquid integration represents Ripple’s first direct connection to a decentralized trading protocol, signaling a strategic expansion beyond its historical focus on payments and blockchain infrastructure toward execution and market access services.
Hyperliquid has grown into one of the largest on-chain perpetuals platforms by volume, offering high-performance trading infrastructure that increasingly resembles centralized derivatives venues. Market analysts say the integration strengthens Hyperliquid’s position within institutional trading ecosystems.
However, the move does not introduce a direct use case for XRP or the XRP Ledger. Following the announcement, Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE rose around 5%, even as broader crypto markets declined.
Ripple has not disclosed plans for additional DeFi integrations but industry observers expect further expansion in 2026 as prime brokers compete to capture institutional flows into on-chain markets.
