Ripple Prime Shortlisted in Four Hedge Week Broker Awards

Ripple Prime has been shortlisted for four "Prime Broker of the Year" categories at the Hedge Week US Awards 2026, CEO Mike Higgins said on X. The nominations run from Client Service to Technology. None of them are wins yet. Voting is open, and Higgins is asking clients and partners to push the firm over the line, category by category.

Who it's up against

The company it's keeping is the story. In Specialist Markets, Ripple Prime sits on the ballot beside Interactive Brokers and Mirae Asset Securities (USA), both older and far larger names. Its Technology and Start-up & Emerging Managers bids place it next to Jones Trading and AGP Prime. This is a brokerage that traded as Hidden Road until Ripple bought it in April 2025. Sharing a shortlist with Interactive Brokers is itself the flex.

Why revenue tripled

The nominations rest on real volume. Ripple Prime clears more than $3 trillion a year for over 300 institutional clients, which ranks it among the largest non-bank prime brokers anywhere. Higgins told a Token Relations webinar that revenue has more than tripled since the acquisition, as new and existing clients scaled up their exposure.

He credits the plumbing. RLUSD moves collateral around the clock, so positions do not sit idle over a weekend. A horizontal clearing layer nets exposure across venues. And cross-margining across asset classes can turn a $12.5 million margin requirement into roughly $1 million, by his math. That last number is the pitch to any trading desk watching its capital. In the second quarter the firm wired up new venues including Coinbase Derivatives and Hyperliquid, and pulled a $200 million debt facility from Neuberger Berman.

Who's trading now

The client mix is moving upmarket. What began with crypto-native trading firms now pulls in hedge funds, asset managers, pensions, and endowments, a shift Higgins ties to the GENIUS Act and the still-pending CLARITY Act. His near-term list is concrete: tokenized money market funds accepted as collateral, and a "Delta One" equities business. The long game, he says, is getting the industry to standardize. The awards, though, won't be settled by clearing volume. They come down to who votes.