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

Hidden Road was the multi-asset prime brokerage Marc Asch built to serve hedge funds and trading firms across crypto and traditional markets before Ripple acquired it in 2025 and renamed it Ripple Prime. The deal gave Ripple a licensed institutional brokerage arm to sit alongside its payments business, RLUSD stablecoin and the XRP Ledger, extending a buildout that began with its On-Demand Liquidity network years earlier.

Asch's departure is set for the end of 2026, not immediate, giving Ripple Prime's institutional clients a year-plus runway before the handover. Noel Kimmel, already a senior vice president inside the brokerage, steps up to run it, a promotion from within rather than an outside hire. Ripple frames the move as reinforcing its institutional strategy, with Kimmel expected to push RLUSD and XRP Ledger further into real-world brokerage and settlement use.

Founders who sell their firms into larger crypto companies often depart once earn-out periods and integration work are done, and Asch's planned 2026 exit fits that pattern rather than signaling trouble at Ripple Prime. The real question is whether Ripple can keep Hidden Road's institutional credibility intact once its founder is gone, or whether the brokerage becomes just another business line inside a much larger, stablecoin-focused company.

The handover is scheduled for the end of 2026, which leaves more than a year to judge whether Kimmel changes Ripple Prime's product mix or client base before taking full charge. Watch for any interim announcements on RLUSD or XRP Ledger integration tied to the brokerage, which would signal whether Ripple is accelerating the institutional push ahead of Asch's departure rather than waiting for the formal transition.

XRP fell 2.9% in the 4 hours after the first headline, after rising 0.2% in the 2 hours before.

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