The market responded immediately. As Ripple announced the establishment of an institutional credit fund with Clearpool and Cicada Partners, the price of XRP rose nearly 20% in 24 hours to touch $1.30, while accumulating a 30% gain over the past week. The fund is set up to provide working capital loans to fintech and payment companies through the XRP Ledger ecosystem, with all loans denominated in the RLUSD stablecoin.
In this collaboration, Ripple is positioning itself purely as a limited partner on the exact same terms as other investors. This means the company is not offering any indemnity guarantees in the event of a future default. To date, the exact size of the fund and Ripple’s committed capital have not been disclosed to the public.
Not New Players
The two partners Ripple has teamed up with bring a long track record. Cicada Partners is recorded to have acted as a credit underwriter for funds exceeding $860 million. Clearpool itself, which operates as an institutional lending platform, has processed over $930 million in credit since its launch in 2021.
The use of RLUSD on the XRP Ledger is gradually showing results. A report by Evernorth in July 2026 noted that the trading volume of RLUSD across various XRP Ledger pairs has surpassed $2.5 billion since its public launch. Specifically for the RLUSD/XRP pair, volume reached $900 million over the past six months. The stablecoin’s market share in the network’s on-chain trading activity rose from under 1% to around 12% throughout 2026. In fact, the supply of RLUSD on the XRP Ledger is now slightly larger than its supply on the Ethereum network.
What is XRP’s Role in This Scheme?
With a focus on dollar-denominated loans, borrowers will receive funding and repay their installments purely using RLUSD. XRP’s position remains unchanged: the network’s native coin continues to function to pay transaction fees and maintain minimum account balances, rather than acting as the loaned asset.
Awaiting Validator Green Light
Although the product design is mature, Clearpool’s infrastructure is currently still in the testing phase on the development network. The cause lies in two basic features of the XRP Ledger, namely XLS-65 for Single Asset Vaults and XLS-66 for the lending protocol. Both must still pass the amendment process from network validators before they can be fully operational on the mainnet.
In terms of code resilience, the draft updates have actually passed testing. A security audit by Halborn in June 2026 concluded there were no critical or high-risk vulnerabilities in the XLS-65 and XLS-66 code. The auditing team only found five minor notes, consisting of one medium-level, two low-level, and two informational findings. All have been fully resolved by the development team.
This credit expansion demonstrates a new way for Ripple to build real utility for its stablecoin on top of its own infrastructure, while preserving XRP’s function as network fuel. The key now lies in how quickly validators are willing to approve this new lending protocol so that the flow of institutional funds can actually enter the market.
As reported by crypto.news.
Read also: What Is DeFi (Decentralized Finance)?
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
