Ripple has partnered with Clearpool and Cicada Partners to bring real-world credit to the XRP Ledger (XRPL), according to an August 20 statement. The collaboration is designed to establish an onchain lending model tailored for institutional investors.
The initiative addresses a perceived gap in the decentralized finance ecosystem, where the partners note that the majority of yield is currently driven by crypto market activity rather than productive lending. Estimates cited by the group suggest that roughly 98% of yield originates from mechanisms such as looping, arbitrage, basis trades, points, and liquidity mining, which limits institutional allocations to onchain credit.
Under the collaboration, Clearpool acts as the infrastructure provider to build an institutional credit layer on XRPL utilizing its Lending Protocol and Single Asset Vault architecture. Clearpool's platform has facilitated over $930 million in institutional loans since 2021, featuring a curator-driven structure that permits independent risk managers to operate separate credit markets within defined risk parameters.
Cicada Partners, which brings more than $860 million in credit underwriting experience to the project, will handle loan origination and servicing, set borrower covenants, and monitor overall credit health.
Ripple is participating as a limited partner in the credit fund alongside other institutional investors, without a special backstop role. The deployed capital is directed toward businesses such as fintechs, payment companies, and crypto service providers that utilize stablecoins for working capital needs.
Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin serves as the underlying credit asset, while XRPL provides native lending, vault, and compliance functionality. Features including Permissioned Domains, Credentials, and Clawback enable institutions to enforce eligibility and asset controls. Clearpool is currently developing and testing the integration on the XRPL Devnet, with a technical demonstration planned to illustrate the complete lending process from pool creation to repayment. Meanwhile, the Lending Protocol and Single Asset Vault amendments are undergoing community voting.
