In major XRP news today, crypto firm Ripple is offering swap financing for leveraged exchange-traded funds, expanding deeper into Wall Street. Leveraged ETFs financing is a fee-generating business long dominated by banks and securities firms.
Ripple Quietly Becoming Prime Intermediary in Leveraged ETFs Financing Market
Ripple is positioning itself as a major Wall Street challenger and targeting the leveraged ETF financing market through brokerage arm Ripple Prime, WSJ reported on October 8. While swap financing might not entice the public like a multibillion-dollar deal or IPO, it remains one of Wall Street’s lucrative businesses.
This marks another step in Ripple’s expansion beyond cross-border payments, stablecoins, and custody into institutional market infrastructure.
Ripple Prime is supplying financing for leveraged stock ETFs and earning a financing fee, including roughly an 8% annualized financing rate from Tradr 2X Long SNDK Daily ETF. Notably, the firm is collecting daily swap spreads from products that systematically lag their benchmarks for anyone who holds them longer than a session.
Morningstar Direct data revealed the US market has 593 leveraged ETFs and holds more than $256 billion. This includes 426 funds tracking individual stocks, according to Morningstar Direct data.
Ripple now supplies that service through Ripple Prime, the prime-brokerage business it built after acquiring Hidden Road for $1.25 billion in 2025. The unit works with several ETF providers and has said it wants to extend similar services to other investment managers, including hedge funds.
Non-Banks Enter the Market amid Tighter Risk Requirements
Banks provided much of this financing earlier. However, tighter capital and risk requirements have created openings for nonbank firms including Ripple Prime, Jane Street and Clear Street.
As CoinGape reported earlier, Ripple Prime launched its delta one business for institutions, enabling total return swaps on US stocks, indexes and crypto assets. This marked major news for the XRP community as the firm pushes into equity markets.
Leveraged ETFs deliver a multiple of the daily return of a stock or index, often two or three times. Managers typically obtain that exposure through total-return swaps and similar derivatives.
Earlier this week, Ripple Prime expanded its partnership with Brevan Howard to offer multi-asset prime brokerage, clearing and financing services to Brevan Howard funds.
Explosive growth of leveraged and highly concentrated ETFs, which rely on swaps for exposure, is bringing new counterparties into the fold.
ETF Prime host Nate Geraci said it is “a lucrative business if you’re properly set up to manage it and its associated risks.” He expects more alternative swap counterparties as balance sheets get tapped out on traditional options. “That’s how fast this corner of ETFs is growing,” he added.
Ripple “has emerged as a serious player in providing swap financing to leveraged ETFs”…
Explosive growth of leveraged & highly concentrated ETFs, which rely on swaps for exposure, is bringing new counterparties into the fold.
Like Ripple.
Lucrative business if you’re properly… pic.twitter.com/KU8mqTnNJX
— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) October 8, 2026
Traders and the XRP community responded to Ripple’s entry into the leveraged ETF financing market, driving a 1% rise in XRP price. The price is trading near $1.41 after massive crypto liquidations.
To successfully handle high-volume swap agreements, financial entities rely heavily on institutional crypto custody solutions that secure digital assets under strict regulatory compliance.