Ripple’s 2025 acquisition spree is beginning to look, within the eyes of Digital Ascension Group CEO Jake Claver, much less like opportunistic dealmaking and extra like an try and construct the “Amazon of economic infrastructure,” a vertically built-in stack the place XRP and Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD sit on the settlement layer.
In a video, Claver stated Ripple spent roughly $2.45 billion on acquisitions within the final seven months of 2025, arguing the purchases type “pillars for a grasp plan” that mirrors how Amazon constructed dominance by proudly owning infrastructure reasonably than simply promoting merchandise.
Why Ripple Might Be The ‘Subsequent Amazon’
The core analogy was specific. “Amazon’s success got here from constructing infrastructure, not simply from self merchandise,” Claver stated. “You bought AWS. It grew to become probably the most worthwhile piece of their enterprise. That was infrastructure. They personal all the warehouses and logistics and the cloud and {the marketplace}.”
His competition is that infrastructure performs create structural benefits: decrease marginal prices, sooner iteration, and better switching prices as soon as establishments combine. “This vertical integration is uncommon in monetary providers,” he stated, arguing that the majority companies “specialise in one layer or associate for the remaining,” which introduces friction, delays, and blame-shifting when programs fail.
He additionally claimed the endgame resembles “winner take all dynamics,” the place “community results make the massive networks exponentially extra useful than small ones” and “switching turns into price prohibitive” as soon as workflows are embedded.
To clarify the Amazon comparability, Claver mapped Ripple’s 2025 offers to what he sees because the minimal viable infrastructure bundle for an institutional “platform.”
“You want custody and clearing for belongings. You want treasury administration for company operations. You want fee rails that work globally 24/7, 365,” he stated. “You want a secure coin infrastructure for environment friendly settlements. And also you want settlement belongings to have the ability to transfer between all of these.”
He argued Ripple has assembled these layers by way of a mixture of older buys and 2025 mega-deals, culminating in what he known as an end-to-end institutional product branded “Ripple 1.”
Essentially the most distinguished 2025 transfer, Claver stated, was the $1.25 billion buy of Hidden Highway in April, now rebranded “Ripple Prime.” His framing: prime brokerage is the institutional “plumbing” that makes large-scale buying and selling and settlement doable.
“Prime brokers present the behind-the-scenes providers that make institutional buying and selling doable,” he stated. “They deal with clearing. They make certain commerce really settles between counterparties. They supply custody and maintain belongings securely.” He added that Hidden Highway served “over 300 institutional shoppers” and cleared “greater than $3 trillion” in 2024, and claimed the enterprise has grown “3x” for the reason that acquisition announcement.
He additionally pointed to an integration hook meant to create inside demand for Ripple’s stablecoin: “Hidden Highway will use RLUSD as collateral throughout prime brokerage merchandise. And this creates natural demand for Ripple stablecoin with institutional adoption.”
The second pillar, he stated, was Rail, acquired for about $200 million in August 2025, described as a stablecoin funds platform that operates 24/7 and reduces the necessity for enterprises to carry crypto instantly. He claimed Rail was forecast to course of “over 10%” of a $36 billion international B2B stablecoin funds market in 2025.
Third got here GTreasury, acquired for $1 billion after being introduced in October 2025 and shutting in December, which Claver described as treasury software program utilized by massive companies and processing $12.5 trillion in annual fee quantity. The strategic worth, he argued, is distribution: entry to CFOs and treasurers through trusted software program already embedded in company finance workflows.
The fourth, Palisade, introduced in November 2025 with undisclosed phrases, was framed because the “sizzling pockets” layer: operational wallet-as-a-service infrastructure for high-velocity transaction use instances, complementing deeper custody options.
At press time, XRP traded at $2.10.
Featured picture created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
