Ethereum has surged 20% in the past 24 hours, trading at $2,209 as of press time, in one of its sharpest short-term moves this year. The rally was backed by a sharp rise in trading activity, especially in the derivatives…

Ethereum rallies 20% as ETH reaches its most undervalued level relative to BTC since 2019

Coinbase expanded its global footprint in the crypto derivatives market with 
the acquisition of Deribit but the company&#8217;s Q1 report prompted a Wall Street 
analyst to revise his target lower. In a note to clients on Friday, H.C. 
Wainwright analyst…

Coinbase stock target cut after weak Q1 performance, Deribit deal praised: analyst

Ripple has made a slew of acquisitions to control key transaction rails and 
route them through XRP and its stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), drawing 
comparisons to Japanese investment firm SoftBank.
The $1.25-billion acquisition of Hidden Road on April 8 allows Ripple to use 
RLUSD as collateral in the firm&#8217;s prime brokerage products. Hidden Road will 
also migrate its post-trade operations to the XRP Ledger, the blockchain that 
underpins cryptocurrency XRP (XRP) and several of Ripple&#8217;s institutional 
services.
Omni Network founder and CEO Austin King knows Ripple&#8217;s strategy firsthand. He 
sold his startup, Strata Labs, to Ripple in 2019 and describes the approach as 
a &#8220;SoftBank-type&#8221; acquisition strategy.
Instead of in-house development like Google or Meta (formerly Facebook), 
SoftBank built its empire through aggressive investments, joint ventures and 
acquisitions. Ripple seems to be following a similar playbook, but not 
everyone&#8217;s convinced the comparison holds.
_XRP reaches over 300 institutional clients through Ripple &#8216;s Hidden Road 
acquisition. Source: __Brad Garlinghouse_
## The SoftBank model in Ripple
Two deals put SoftBank on the global map: an early investor in Yahoo and the 
legendary $20-million bet on Alibaba, which exploded to $60 billion when 
Alibaba went public in 2014. SoftBank recycled its returns into fresh capital, 
exits and a sprawling ecosystem. That included the $20-billion move into US 
telecom via Sprint and semiconductors through its $31-billion acquisition of 
UK-based ARM.
&#8220;This wide breadth of coverage allowed SoftBank to create synergies across 
their entire portfolio of companies,&#8221; King told Cointelegraph. &#8220;Ripple is 
performing a similar strategy focused on financial services, but instead of 
venture bets on Yahoo and Alibaba enabling this, it is XRP.&#8221;
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Considering Ripple&#8217;s recent acquisitions, both firms buy infrastructure 
instead of building it from scratch and treat their portfolios as ecosystems 
rather than one-off investments.
Both companies rely on capital as leverage. SoftBank used its $100-billion 
Vision Fund to outbid competitors. Ripple also has a war chest of XRP and 
cash. As of March 31, Ripple had 4.56 billion XRP (around $11 billion at 
current prices) and another 37.13 billion XRP ($89.8 billion) in escrow.
Acquisitions expand the footprint for XRP and RLUSD in traditional finance, 
turning them into embedded components of custody, brokerage and payment flows. 
This creates what King describes as a token-fueled flywheel. Ripple uses its 
assets to acquire infrastructure, which in turn drives usage back into those 
assets.
_XRP ranks third among non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market 
capitalization. Source:__CoinGecko_
&#8220;With a full-stack infrastructure, Ripple can embed XRP as the native bridge 
asset between networks, custodians and tokenized assets. Meanwhile, RLUSD can 
provide a regulated, USD-pegged unit of account that institutions want,&#8221; said 
Sid Powell, co-founder and CEO of institutional blockchain lender Maple.
King&#8217;s analogy has its skeptics.
&#8220;SoftBank operates more as a conglomerate or holding company, taking broader 
investment positions across industries. On the other hand, Ripple is taking a 
more focused and product-related approach with its recent acquisitions tied to 
payment missions and core blockchain,&#8221; Powell said.
Casper Johansen, co-founder of Spartan Group, told Cointelegraph the 
comparison seems &#8220;a bit stretched,&#8221; noting that SoftBank&#8217;s success came from 
acquiring and turning around operating businesses, joint ventures, minority 
stakes and eventually exiting some for large gains.
## Ripple joins the crypto M&amp;A arms race
Instead of spanning telecom, media and chips, Ripple is assembling a financial 
infrastructure stack. It acquired custody firms Metaco in 2023 and Standard 
Custody in 2024. The latest addition, prime broker Hidden Road, brings 300 
institutional clients clearing $3 trillion annually.
&#8220;Where Metaco lays the foundation &#8212; the vault for storing assets &#8212; Hidden 
Road allows Ripple to leverage its massive balance sheet to turbocharge Hidden 
Road&#8217;s business, in which access to capital &#8212; a lot of capital &#8212; is critical 
in order to keep growing and competing,&#8221; Johansen said.
The move echoes a broader M&amp;A wave among US crypto firms. Kraken recently 
acquired NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, while Coinbase has acquired Deribit for 
$2.9 billion.
These acquisitions follow a shift in the US regulatory climate that&#8217;s clearing 
the runway for crypto firms to scale. For years, companies like Ripple were 
stuck in limbo, facing lawsuits, enforcement actions and denied access to 
basic banking services under Gary Gensler&#8217;s Securities and Exchange 
Commission.
_**Related:**__**Ripple celebrates SEC &#8216;s dropped appeal, but crypto rules 
still not set**_
While &#8220;debanking&#8221; remains a concern, industry leaders say momentum is 
changing. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a recent media interview that 
the SEC is expected to take a &#8220;very constructive and positive&#8221; stance toward 
the industry.
Ripple itself spent years in a legal battle with the SEC, which sued the 
company in December 2020. On May 8, Ripple and the SEC reached a settlement to 
formally end the case, pending court approval.
## Ripple&#8217;s next moves include stablecoins
Garlinghouse said Ripple intends to continue exploring acquisitions.
&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised if in the next year or two we saw the acquisition of 
a large-scale point-of-sale company to expand their territory from backend 
financial services to more direct consumer payments,&#8221; King said.
On April 30, Bloomberg reported that Ripple made a $4 billion-to-$5 billion 
bid to acquire Circle, which was rejected for being too low.
Ripple&#8217;s recent moves show it&#8217;s willing to pursue high-stakes acquisitions, 
including plays to absorb stablecoin rivals.
_All banks will jump on stablecoins soon, and that will reshape US finance, 
according to King. Source:__Austin King_
&#8220;The practical integration of XRP remains limited since institutions still 
hesitate to use volatile crypto assets for core settlement,&#8221; said Hadley 
Stern, chief commercial officer at Marinade. &#8220;RLUSD is more promising, but it 
still faces major competition from incumbents like USDC and PayPal USD.&#8221;
Stablecoin regulation in the US remains unresolved. The Guiding and 
Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins of 2025 Act &#8212; known as 
the GENIUS Act &#8212; failed to pass cloture in the Senate on May 8.
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Is Ripple’s Hidden Road deal part of a SoftBank-like playbook?

Coinbase&#8217;s 24/7 futures trading could reshape US crypto markets, enhancing 
liquidity and aligning with global trading dynamics.
The post Coinbase debuts first 24/7 Bitcoin and Ethereum futures in the US 
appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Coinbase debuts first 24/7 Bitcoin and Ethereum futures in the US

Alex Mashinsky, disgraced founder of Celsius, was sentenced to 12 years in 
prison.

Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky sentenced for 12 years in prison for stealing $48M

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