Ripple has deepened its commercial relationship with Brevan Howard, the global macro and digital assets manager overseeing roughly $35 billion in assets, by extending its Ripple Prime platform to cover multi-asset prime brokerage, clearing and financing services for Brevan Howard funds. The agreement, announced on 6 October 2026, marks a material expansion beyond their existing investor relationship.
The move is notable because it converts Brevan Howard from a capital partner into an operational client. Funds managed by Brevan Howard affiliates participated in Ripple’s $500 million strategic investment round in 2025, a raise that valued Ripple at $40 billion and was led by Fortress and Citadel Securities. Having an investor of that scale also become a prime brokerage customer strengthens the commercial validation of the Ripple Prime platform considerably.
What Ripple Prime is selling
Ripple Prime is positioned as a unified institutional platform spanning traditional and digital asset classes. According to the announcement, Brevan Howard will gain access to cross-asset prime services with the stated aim of improving capital efficiency and reducing operational complexity for its investment teams.
Noel Kimmel, president of Ripple Prime, framed the deal as evidence of competitive strength in a segment he described as underserved. “There are few firms equipped to provide the next generation of prime services that sophisticated investors expect, and Brevan Howard’s trust in Ripple Prime is recognition of our strong competitive position and cross-asset capabilities,” he said.
Alan McGroarty, group COO of Brevan Howard, pointed to the convergence of traditional and digital markets as the driver. He said Ripple had built a platform that should provide investment teams with improved operational ease and capital efficiency, without elaborating on specific workflows or asset classes to be covered.
Market context and regulatory read-across
Institutional prime brokerage for digital assets is a segment that has attracted significant investment since the 2022 and 2023 market dislocations weeded out under-capitalised providers. Several traditional prime brokers, including units of major US and European banks, have stepped up digital asset clearing capabilities, while crypto-native firms have sought to build out cross-asset infrastructure to compete on breadth.
Ripple enters this space with a regulatory advantage it has spent years constructing: the company claims more than 85 licences globally, which gives it legal standing across multiple jurisdictions that newer entrants are still working to acquire. That regulatory footprint matters to a firm like Brevan Howard, which manages capital for sovereign wealth funds, pension plans and endowments that impose strict counterparty due diligence requirements.
The deal also arrives as the regulatory environment for digital asset prime services is taking clearer shape. In the US, the SEC and CFTC have been working through how existing prime brokerage rules apply to mixed traditional and digital portfolios. In the EU, MiCA introduces a harmonised framework for crypto-asset service providers that will affect how cross-border clearing arrangements are structured. Firms that can demonstrate regulatory compliance across asset classes are better placed to win mandates from the category of institutional investors that Brevan Howard represents.
The near-term markers to watch are whether Ripple Prime announces further institutional mandates on the back of this deal, the specific asset classes Brevan Howard routes through the platform, and whether Ripple pursues additional licences in jurisdictions where Brevan Howard operates, including its offices in Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Tokyo.
AI level 1 of 5: written by Darlyn Ho; AI helped with tone, structure or wording; edited and signed off by Mark Walker, Editorial Director. What the levels mean