If you still think Ripple is just a payments company, you are already behind. 2026 might be the year it starts looking like something much bigger. Here’s what happened while you weren’t looking: Ripple went on an acquisition spree in 2025 that changed everything... 1/ They bought Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. Renamed it Ripple Prime. That division alone now clears around $3 trillion annually for over 300 institutional client. 2/ Then they picked up GTreasury for roughly $1 billion. Renamed it Ripple Treasury. Fortune 500 companies are using it right now to move funds instead of waiting five days on traditional rails. 3/ Next, Hidden Road is now Ripple Prime, and Ripple says the business has grown 3x since the acquisition was announced. Ripple also says it is now the first crypto company to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker. 4/ On Fox Business recently, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said Ripple is headed for a record quarter and has been “on a tear” since the Hidden Road and GTreasury deals closed. That alone tells you where Ripple thinks the next chapter is headed. 5/ And the real unlock is not just payments anymore. Ripple says RLUSD is already being used as collateral, crossed $1B in market cap in under a year, and sits inside a payments stack that has surpassed $95B in volume. 6/ The backdrop matters just as much. On March 17, the SEC and CFTC issued a joint interpretation to clarify how federal securities laws apply to crypto assets, calling it a major step toward clearer market structure rules. Yes, the Clarity Act is still messy. Yes, stablecoin yield rules are still being fought over. Yes, the politics are ugly. But even with the friction, the direction of travel is obvious. The U.S. is moving closer to a real framework for digital assets. Are we underestimating what will happen with XRP next?