Ripple, Clearpool and Cicada Partners announced on August 20 a collaboration intended to bring institutional credit to the XRP Ledger, targeting fintech, payment and crypto-service companies seeking working-capital loans denominated in Ripple USD (RLUSD). Ripple’s role is as a limited partner in the proposed fund rather than as the lender or a guarantor of borrower losses.
The arrangement combines a stablecoin lending asset with a credit model in which a specialist retains responsibility for borrower selection and risk management. The product is not yet live on XRPL’s mainnet; Clearpool is testing the full workflow on Devnet, while two protocol amendments still require validator approval.
Ripple joins the RLUSD fund without underwriting its losses
The initiative is aimed at creating an institutional-grade credit channel on XRPL, according to the August 20 report from KuCoin. Its proposed borrowers are businesses that need operational financing in the fintech, payments and crypto-services sectors.
Ripple will invest alongside other institutional investors as a limited partner, on equal terms, and will not guarantee loan losses, according to a KuCoin report citing CoinDesk. Neither the total size of the fund nor Ripple’s individual commitment was disclosed.
That distinction matters for how the project is structured. The announced framework does not place Ripple in the role of deciding which companies receive loans or absorbing losses on their behalf. Instead, Ripple is positioned as one source of capital in a fund whose credit functions are assigned to Cicada Partners.
Cicada underwrites credit while Clearpool operates pools
The proposed onchain lending product assigns Cicada responsibility for originating borrowers, structuring loan terms, establishing covenants and monitoring credit risk. Clearpool will provide the lending infrastructure and manage pool creation, leaving credit judgment, borrower terms and ongoing risk oversight with Cicada and ledger-based pool operations with Clearpool.
Cicada says it has underwritten more than $860 million of credit, while Clearpool says it has facilitated more than $930 million in institutional loans since 2021, according to the announcement coverage. The collaboration combines capital from limited partners, a credit manager responsible for underwriting and a platform operator.
XRPL automates loan administration, not institutional credit judgment
Ripple’s proposed XRPL lending design would put administrative parts of the loan lifecycle onchain while leaving underwriting, legal documentation, legal terms and borrower-credit assessment to institutions before the relevant processes are administered through the lending infrastructure, CoinDesk reported in June. XRPL would automate pool management, loan execution, interest accrual, repayment and default processes. RLUSD would serve as a potential lending and settlement asset, with proposed working-capital loans denominated in RLUSD; XRP would remain necessary for network fees and reserves, supporting the network’s operational requirements rather than serving as the proposed loan denomination.
Mainnet lending awaits XLS-65 and XLS-66
The announcement comes before the required lending functionality has reached XRPL mainnet. Clearpool is testing the full workflow on XRPL Devnet, while the XLS-65 Single Asset Vault and XLS-66 Lending Protocol amendments remain subject to validator approval, Ripple said in a June 29 post.
Those approvals are the immediate execution constraint for the proposed product. Until they are secured and the workflow moves beyond Devnet testing, the collaboration represents a planned institutional lending framework rather than a live mainnet market.
RLUSD’s disclosed reserves and circulation provide a measure of the stablecoin base the fund proposes to use. Ripple reported $1.5896 billion of RLUSD in circulation and $1.7026 billion in reserve funds as of August 6. The company said it issues monthly attestations through an independent CPA, according to its RLUSD transparency page.
The reserve and circulation figures do not disclose the planned fund’s capacity or capital allocation. Those details, along with Ripple’s commitment, have not been made public, while the protocol approvals remain outstanding.
