Ripple’s $1.25 billion acquisition of prime broker Hidden Road has sparked renewed speculation around XRP handling trillions in institutional liquidity.

Following comments from Ripple CTO David Schwartz regarding the acquisition, XRP community influencer Zach Rector presented an analysis of how the deal could impact XRP’s price and adoption.

For context, Ripple’s purchase of Hidden Road is one of the most significant acquisitions in the crypto scene. Schwartz revealed that Hidden Road processes over $10 billion in daily liquidity across traditional financial markets. 

However, these transactions often take up to 24 hours to settle using legacy financial systems. Ripple’s CTO highlighted that a “portion” of Hidden Road’s massive transaction volume could soon be processed on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

This would enable faster and more efficient settlement. At the same time, it would inject a fresh wave of institutional liquidity into the XRP ecosystem. Accordingly, Schwartz described the acquisition as “a defining moment for XRP.”

Unsurprisingly, the XRP community took note. Enthusiasts are now speculating on the scale of capital that could eventually flow through the XRPL.

The Math: How XRP Could Handle Trillions Annually

Building on Schwartz’s statements, Rector crunched the numbers to illustrate how even a fraction of Hidden Road’s liquidity could drive enormous settlement volume through the XRPL.

He reiterated his long-held belief that XRP only needs to capture a small percentage of institutional flows to see significant price appreciation. He believes Ripple’s acquisition and Schwartz’s remarks further validate that belief. 

According to the Rector’s breakdown of potential daily and annual flows through the XRPL:

• 10% of Hidden Road’s liquidity: $1 billion per day, translating to roughly $300 billion annually
• 30% of liquidity: $3 billion daily, or $900 billion to $1 trillion annually
• 50% of liquidity: $5 billion per day, totaling over $1.5 trillion annually

Lets run through the math…

I have long talked about how XRP would just need to see a "portion" of these institutional liquidity flows for us to see a signifigant price increase. Now we have it confirmed that Ripple's new aquisition of Hidden Road will be bringing a "portion"… https://t.co/RCUj3t6Cay

— Zach Rector (@ZachRector7) April 9, 2025

From “Crazy” to “Inevitable”?

Rector claims these figures confirm that XRPL is in a position to handle trillions in financial flows, turning what once seemed like a fantasy into a growing reality. He sees new credibility to the XRP community’s long-standing vision of XRPL processing trillion-dollar transactions.

Some XRP supporters believe that for XRPL to process trillions in value realistically, XRP’s unit price must rise substantially. Notably, XRP’s price is $1.98, and its market cap is $115 billion. Proponents argue that the network’s capacity to handle multi-trillion dollar flows would necessitate a significantly higher market capitalization in the multi-trillion range.

While still speculative, Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road has potentially laid the groundwork for this long-held theory to materialize.