Ripple Prime head Marc Asch to step down, Noel Kimmel named successor

Marc Asch, the founder of Hidden Road and the head of what is now Ripple Prime, is leaving the business at the end of the year. Noel Kimmel, an SVP at Ripple Prime, will take over leadership of the unit and its team inside Ripple.

A founder exits, a successor steps up

A Ripple spokesperson confirmed the change and framed it as a planned handoff rather than a sudden shakeup.

“As he moves on at the end of the year to pursue new opportunities, Noel Kimmel, SVP, Ripple Prime is stepping up to lead the business and team within Ripple,” the spokesperson said.

Asch founded Hidden Road in 2018. He stayed on after Ripple bought the firm and has now transitioned out as part of the integration process.

Kimmel, described in deep research findings as the new President of Ripple Prime, brings a long prime brokerage résumé. His background includes stints at Cerberus and JP Morgan.

What Ripple bought, and what it has built since

Ripple acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 billion in April 2025. The deal made Ripple the first crypto company to own a global multi-asset prime broker.

In October 2025, Hidden Road was rebranded as Ripple Prime. The new name signaled that the unit would serve institutional clients across both traditional and digital asset markets under the Ripple banner.

Since the acquisition, Ripple Prime has introduced RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin, as collateral. It is also migrating its post-trade activities onto the XRP Ledger.

In November 2025, Ripple Prime launched a US digital asset spot prime brokerage, giving institutions a way to access spot crypto trading through a prime services relationship.

The business has tripled its revenue year-over-year since the acquisition. It has also rolled out new products aimed at hedge funds and market makers.

On the financing side, Ripple Prime secured a $200 million credit facility in 2026 to scale its institutional capabilities.

The unit has also expanded its client roster, including a deal with Brevan Howard, one of the better-known names in the hedge fund world.

What this means for Ripple and its institutional ambitions

Elevating an internal SVP with JP Morgan and Cerberus experience, instead of hiring from outside, looks designed to keep disruption to a minimum for clients.

RLUSD as collateral and post-trade migration to the XRP Ledger are the pieces that connect a traditional brokerage to Ripple’s on-chain ecosystem. If those efforts proceed under Kimmel, they could give RLUSD and the XRP Ledger real institutional usage rather than theoretical use cases.

What to watch next: whether Ripple Prime keeps up its revenue momentum through the leadership transition, how fast the XRP Ledger migration progresses, and whether more large funds follow Brevan Howard onto the platform.