Marc Asch, who founded Hidden Road in 2018 and led it after Ripple’s $1.25 billion acquisition, is stepping down from Ripple Prime, with Noel Kimmel set to replace him. A CoinDesk report citing a Ripple spokesperson gives the departure date as the end of 2015, conflicting with prior reporting that placed it at the end of 2026. Kimmel, currently a Senior Vice President at Ripple Prime, has already represented the business as it expanded into institutional financing, derivatives, clearing, lending and partnerships. Ripple Prime, introduced after the October 2025 Hidden Road acquisition, serves institutional clients across asset classes and supports exposure to Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. Ripple also acquired GTreasury for $1 billion and Rail for $200 million in 2025. The business recently received the Prime Broker of the Year: EMEA award at the 2026 Hedgeweek US Awards. Existing expansion initiatives include Delta One swaps, perpetual swaps linked to real-world assets, digital-asset and RLUSD-backed lending, and a planned migration of post-trade activity to the XRP Ledger, while Ripple has not announced changes to its operating model or new lending and collateral targets.