U.Today has prepared the top three news stories over the past day.

Ripple announces one of largest deals in crypto history

In its official press release from April 8, Ripple, a San Francisco-based fintech giant, announced that it is acquiring prime brokerage Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. This makes Ripple the first crypto company to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker. Hidden Road serves hundreds of institutional clients, including hedge funds and quant traders, and Ripple has been its long-time customer. The acquisition is expected to enhance Ripple's stablecoin business, with its RLUSD being used as collateral across Hidden Road's offerings. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse commented on the company's move on his X page: "With this deal and the backing of Ripple’s significant balance sheet, Hidden Road will exponentially expand its capacity to service its pipeline and become the largest non-bank prime broker globally." 

First U.S.-based XRP ETF debuts with "very respectable" trading volume

On Tuesday, April 8, Bloomberg's senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas took to X platform to share the news of the successful debut of the first U.S.-based XRP ETF. According to Balchunas's X post, on its first day, the Teucrium 2x Long Daily XRP ETF (XXRP) demonstrated a "very respectable" trading volume of $5 million. The expert noted that this performance places XXRP in the top 5% of new ETF launches, significantly outperforming a recently launched leveraged Solana ETF. "Despite all the negative sentiment from people within the crypto industry, I’ve always maintained that XRP has much more appeal than industry players want to admit," wrote pro-XRP lawyer John Deaton on X. As previously reported by U.Today, the new U.S.-based XRP ETF offers 2x leveraged exposure to XRP through swaps; the product is designed as a tool for short-term speculation on volatility.

BlackRock offloads $254,000,000 in Bitcoin on Coinbase: What's going on?

According to Lookonchain data from yesterday, April 9, BlackRock deposited 3,296 BTC, which is worth about $254 million, on Coinbase, the leading crypto exchange in the U.S. This major move raised concerns among market participants, as such large shifts to centralized exchanges are viewed as an intention by a large holder to sell. Since the launch of Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, this is the first notable sale from BlackRock. However, it is unlikely that BlackRock is getting rid of its investment holdings, but rather that the ongoing outflows from its Bitcoin-focused ETF, IBIT, are forcing the sale of the underlying asset. At press time, BlackRock is holding 572,074 BTC, equivalent to about $44.89 billion.