Institutional Lending Comes to XRP Ledger as Ripple, Clearpool, and Cicada Join Forces

Institutional lending is coming to the XRP Ledger (XRPL), with a new partnership between Clearpool, Cicada Partners, and Ripple bringing real-world lending activity onchain.

XRPL developer Vet (Hussein Zangana) highlighted the development on X, saying, “Now it gets really serious on the XRPL.”

He described the move as a clear institutional commitment to borrowing and lending on the ledger. The planned structure brings together three players with distinct roles.

Notably, Clearpool will provide the lending infrastructure, and Cicada Partners will handle credit origination and credit checks. Meanwhile, Ripple will provide capital

The borrowers will be fintech and payment companies that use stablecoins to fund their day-to-day business needs.

XRPL Lending Protocol at the Center with Ripple Backing

Notably, the project will use XRPL’s proposed XLS-66 Lending Protocol and XLS-65 Single Asset Vaults. For context, the XRPL community is still voting on it.

The model allows institutions to put money into managed lending pools, while credit managers choose borrowers, set loan terms, and manage risk.

Cicada has experience with more than $860 million in credit, while Clearpool has helped facilitate over $930 million in institutional loans since 2021.

Ripple will invest in the credit fund alongside other institutional investors rather than guarantee the loans.

Ripple RLUSD and XRP Could Power the Lending Flywheel

The proposed system seeks to create an activity loop across the XRPL ecosystem.

Borrowers would use RLUSD for everyday business needs, which could increase its use for payments and settlements. XRP would continue to be used for transaction fees and network reserves.

Vet described this as a potential cycle: investors provide capital, earn returns, and then provide more capital, while increased lending brings more activity to the XRPL.

The main idea is that investors would earn returns from loans to real businesses rather than mainly from DeFi strategies such as liquidity mining, arbitrage, or leverage.

Technical Demo Coming Next

Clearpool is building and testing the system on the XRPL Devnet. A demo is expected to show the full lending process, from creating a lending pool to issuing and repaying loans.

The Lending Protocol and Single Asset Vault features still need to pass the XRPL voting process before they can launch on the mainnet.

If activated, this could expand XRPL beyond payments and make it a platform for institutional lending.

XRP Price Surges 18.5%

Meanwhile, the development comes as XRP stages a sharp price recovery. XRP is trading at $1.31, up 18.5% over the past 24 hours and 31% over the past week. The cryptocurrency traded as low as $0.98 earlier this week before staging its latest rally.

The rising XRP price, along with the planned institutional lending system, could bring more attention to XRP and the XRPL as part of the growing onchain financial market.