Ripple just locked down a $200 million asset-backed debt facility from Neuberger Berman, one of the larger independent investment managers in the world. The capital is earmarked for expanding Ripple Prime, the company’s institutional prime brokerage platform that launched in November 2025.
The facility is collateralized by Ripple Prime’s institutional loan portfolio and structured to allow flexible drawdowns. In English: Ripple can tap into the credit line as needed rather than taking the full $200M upfront, giving it room to scale lending and margin trading operations in step with actual demand.
Why Neuberger Berman matters here
Neuberger Berman manages $567 billion in client assets. This is not a crypto-native fund cutting a check to a crypto company. It is a traditional asset management giant extending credit to a digital assets firm, and the structure of the deal, an asset-backed debt facility rather than equity, signals something important about how Wall Street views crypto infrastructure in 2026.
Ripple Prime’s revenue has tripled year-over-year since its launch, according to the company. The platform is now managing over $3 trillion annually in clearing volumes.
The Hidden Road foundation
Ripple Prime didn’t materialize out of thin air. It sits on the foundation of Ripple’s $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road in October 2025, which gave Ripple an established institutional services infrastructure to build upon.
Hidden Road was already a multi-asset prime broker serving institutional clients across traditional and digital markets. Ripple essentially bought the plumbing and then rebranded and expanded it into Ripple Prime, integrating equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, and digital assets including XRP and RLUSD under one roof.
What this means for investors
The competitive dynamics in institutional crypto services are shifting fast. Coinbase Prime has the advantage of being a publicly traded, US-regulated entity with deep liquidity. Galaxy Digital brings capital markets expertise and a growing lending book. Ripple Prime’s differentiator is the multi-asset integration play, trying to be the one-stop shop where crypto sits alongside traditional instruments.
The $200M facility is operational capital designed to support margin trading and lending. Ripple is betting institutions want to borrow against their crypto holdings while simultaneously managing traditional positions. Projections suggest corporate digital asset allocations could exceed $1 trillion by the end of 2026.
For XRP and RLUSD holders specifically, the expansion of Ripple Prime could drive incremental demand for both assets. A larger institutional platform means more venues where these tokens serve as collateral or settlement instruments.