Why India’s Institutions Should Care

• Ripple Prime clears over $3 trillion annually and serves more than 300 institutions.
• India’s FPIs invested ₹27,186 crore in equities through August 25, the best since 2024.
• SEBI says 87.7% of equity-derivatives traders lost ₹91,685 crore in FY ’26 overall.

Ripple is extending its institutional business beyond digital assets by combining crypto exposure with U.S. equity derivatives through its Ripple Prime platform. The expansion matters for India as regulated finance is moving toward tokenized infrastructure, while authorities continue tightening controls around derivatives and digital assets.

Ripple Prime Connects Crypto, Equities and Institutional Finance

On August 27, Ripple launched a Delta One business allowing institutions to execute total return swaps across U.S.-listed equities, indices, and digital assets. The platform provides clearing, financing, and prime brokerage across foreign exchange, fixed income, derivatives, and crypto through a single counterparty.

Positions across those markets can be cross-margined around the clock, allowing institutions to manage collateral and financing within one framework. Ripple Prime was formed after Ripple completed its $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road in October 2025.

The business tripled between the acquisition announcement and completion. It now clears more than $3 trillion annually, serves over 300 institutional customers, and operates with more than $1 billion in regulatory net capital.

That scale shows Ripple shifting from a crypto-focused company toward broader infrastructure serving traditional and digital markets together.

India’s Tokenization Push Meets Tighter Derivatives Oversight

Rather than allowing unrestricted derivatives expansion, India is strengthening oversight while institutional participation continues to recover. Against this backdrop, FPIs invested ₹27,186 crore in Indian equities through August 25, marking a second consecutive month of net buying and the strongest inflow since September 2024.

However, foreign investors remained net sellers for 2026 overall, showing that institutional participation can recover while broader capital flows remain uneven. SEBI reported that 87.7% of individual equity-derivatives traders lost money in FY26, with aggregate losses reaching ₹91,685 crore.

Consequently, larger contract sizes and fewer weekly expiries have focused on limiting excessive speculation and strengthening market safeguards. Meanwhile, India plans to pilot its first tokenized corporate bond in September through state-owned REC.

Transactions will settle using the RBI’s wholesale digital rupee, while participants will use DEMAT 2.0 securities wallets alongside wholesale CBDC wallets. The model excludes Bitcoin, stablecoins, and public crypto markets, keeping tokenization inside regulated financial infrastructure.

For Indian institutions, that distinction matters given that blockchain-based settlement, custody, and collateral systems can develop without requiring direct cryptocurrency exposure.

Ripple Prime therefore provides a reference for how traditional finance and crypto infrastructure can converge within one institutional risk-management and financing structure.

Related: India’s First Tokenized Bond Issue: How RBI’s Wholesale CBDC Powers DEMAT 2.0