Marc Asch, the head of Ripple Prime, is stepping down roughly a year after his institutional prime brokerage firm was acquired by cryptocurrency firm Ripple. Asch, who founded the business as Hidden Road Partners in 2018, plans to depart at the end of the year to pursue new opportunities, CoinDesk reported.
Ripple confirmed the leadership transition, naming Noel Kimmel as Asch’s successor. Kimmel, currently serving as senior vice president at Ripple Prime, will take over the helm to guide the division’s institutional strategy and operations.
The departure marks a key milestone for Ripple Prime, which originated from Ripple’s $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road announced in April 2025. Following the completion and rebranding of the unit in October 2025, the prime broker has served institutional clients by providing clearing, financing, and prime brokerage services across digital assets as well as traditional markets, including foreign exchange, derivatives, and fixed income. The unit also integrates Ripple’s dollar-backed stablecoin, RLUSD, as collateral across several prime brokerage offerings.
The acquisition of Hidden Road formed part of an aggressive expansion campaign by Ripple to diversify beyond its core cross-border payments network and association with XRP. During that period, the company expanded its footprint into custody, stablecoins, and corporate treasury management, reinforced by a $1 billion acquisition of treasury software provider GTreasury and a $200 million purchase of stablecoin payments platform Rail.
Before establishing Hidden Road in 2018, Asch spent years in traditional finance, including tenures at billionaire investor Steve Cohen’s hedge funds, SAC Capital and Point72 Asset Management. Kimmel will inherit the mandate of scaling Ripple’s prime brokerage platform as the company continues targeting banks, hedge funds, and corporate clients worldwide.
