Ripple Prime to provide multiasset brokerage and financing to Brevan Howard funds

Ripple and Brevan Howard announced an expanded agreement on 6 October under which Ripple Prime will provide multiasset prime brokerage, clearing and financing to Brevan Howard funds. The development is a customer mandate across traditional and digital markets, with operational simplicity and capital efficiency described as expected benefits.[1]

The relationship already included an investment connection: funds managed by Brevan Howard affiliates participated in Ripple’s $500 million strategic investment round in 2025. The new agreement concerns services to funds. It does not disclose which portfolios are involved, contracted financing rates or the size of any balances to be placed with the prime broker.[1]

The financing proposition sits behind the trading decision

Ripple Prime’s current product page describes clearing and financing across digital assets, FX, listed derivatives, swaps and fixed income. Its model combines a counterparty relationship with portfolio-based margin financing and a common collateral pool. The company presents cross-margining as a way to recognise offsets across supported exposures.[2]

For a multiasset manager, the useful question is how much collateral the agreed risk model actually requires for its portfolio. Bringing two positions under one provider creates the possibility of an offset; its size still depends on accepted collateral, stress assumptions, concentration limits and the legal arrangements permitting the positions to be considered together.

As a purely illustrative comparison, reducing average funded collateral by $1 million at a 6% annual funding cost would reduce that cost by $60,000 a year, before new service charges or changes in exposure. Neither input is a disclosed Brevan Howard term. The example shows why the amount released and its funding cost both matter.

The brand spans several legal service providers

Ripple Prime’s terms identify Hidden Road as the business operating under the brand, with services supplied through a group of entities. These include Hidden Road Partners CIV US LLC, the US futures commission merchant and broker-dealer; Hidden Road Partners CIV UK Ltd; and Hidden Road Partners CIV NL B.V. The website’s service descriptions remain subject to credit, risk, legal and onboarding approval.[3]

The agreement announcement does not identify the booking entity for each Brevan Howard fund. That makes the signed account and product documentation the relevant place to establish financing obligations, collateral treatment and enforceable rights. A single commercial relationship can cover several legally distinct arrangements.

Ripple’s product page also separates Prime from Ripple Custody. Prime clears and finances institutional trades; custody is another service that can operate alongside it, including through tri-party arrangements. The mandate should therefore not be read as a disclosed migration of every fund’s assets into a single custody account.[2]

Trading authority and the price paid still need definition

The published trading disclosures apply specifically to the UK and Netherlands entities. They allow principal or matched-principal transactions and an all-in quote incorporating fees, commission or markup. Prices may differ between clients, and the firm is not obliged to disclose each component. These are general service terms, rather than the commercial schedule agreed with Brevan Howard.[4]

For UK and Netherlands digital-prime-brokerage services, the execution policy says clients choose exchange transactions within permitted limits or agree OTC terms before execution. It says specific client instructions mean best-execution duties will not normally apply in those arrangements. Separately, the US FCM provides electronic futures access and says it has no ordinary-course execution desk.[5]

Those distinctions locate the benefit in the services actually procured: access to financing, clearing and a coordinated post-trade process. The manager still needs to compare its realised execution and complete financing bill. The expanded mandate is evidence of a broader commercial relationship; its economic benefit to the funds will depend on the agreed terms and how their portfolios use them.

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