Ripple’s huge $1.25 billion acquisition of prime brokerage Hidden Road has really got the XRP community buzzing again, with everyone wondering if this could be the moment XRP starts handling trillions of dollars in institutional money!

After Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, shared some thoughts on the acquisition, prominent XRP community voice Zach Rector jumped in with an analysis. He broke down how this deal could potentially supercharge XRP’s price and make it way more widely used.

To really understand the scale of this, Ripple buying Hidden Road is a massive move in the crypto world. Schwartz pointed out that Hidden Road is already a big player, processing over $10 billion in trading volume *every single day* across traditional financial markets.

Now, here’s the kicker: these traditional systems often take up to a whole day to actually settle those transactions! But Ripple’s CTO hinted that we could see a “portion” of Hidden Road’s enormous transaction flow start being processed on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) soon.

Imagine the impact – settlements could become lightning fast and way more efficient! Plus, it would inject a brand new surge of institutional cash directly into the XRP ecosystem. It’s no wonder Schwartz called this acquisition “a defining moment for XRP.”

And you bet the XRP community is paying attention. Enthusiasts are now seriously speculating about just how much capital could eventually be zipping through the XRPL.

Let’s Do the Math: Can XRP Really Handle Trillions a Year?

Taking Schwartz’s comments as a starting point, Rector decided to crunch some numbers. He wanted to show just how quickly even a small slice of Hidden Road’s liquidity could translate into massive settlement volumes on the XRPL.

He brought up his long-standing idea that XRP only needs to grab a small percentage of institutional flows to see its price skyrocket. And for him, Ripple’s acquisition and Schwartz’s comments are like a big flashing sign that his idea is right on track.

Here’s Rector’s breakdown of the potential daily and yearly flows on the XRPL, based on different percentages of Hidden Road’s liquidity:

• Just 10% of Hidden Road’s liquidity: That’s $1 billion every day, which adds up to around $300 billion per year!
• Bump it up to 30%: We’re talking $3 billion daily, or a whopping $900 billion to $1 trillion annually.
• Go for 50%: That’s $5 billion per day, and over $1.5 trillion every single year!

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”…

— Zach Rector (@ZachRector7) April 9, 2025

From “Crazy Talk” to “Maybe It’s Actually Happening”?

Rector argues that these numbers prove the XRPL is absolutely capable of handling trillions in financial transactions. What once sounded like a wild dream is starting to feel more and more real. He believes this gives serious weight to the XRP community’s long-held vision of the XRPL becoming a major player processing trillions in value.

Of course, some XRP fans point out that for the XRPL to realistically handle trillions, the price of XRP itself probably needs to climb significantly. Right now, XRP is at $1.98, with a market cap of $115 billion. They argue that if the network is truly going to handle trillions, its market cap would need to be in the multi-trillion dollar range too.

It’s still early days and definitely speculation at this point, but Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road could very well be the first step in making this long-awaited XRP theory a reality.