Key takeaways
- Ripple partners with Arf, which handles $10B annually
- RLUSD will finance cross-border payments through short-term credit
- Native XRPL lending still requires validator approval before activation
Ripple has partnered with Swiss financial institution Arf to bring stablecoin-powered financing to the XRP Ledger (XRPL), connecting the blockchain to an existing payments business handling approximately $10 billion in annual settlement volume.
According to Arf's October 22 announcement, the partnership will use Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin to provide short-term working capital to licensed cross-border payment companies. The financing typically lasts one to five days, allowing capital to be reused as international transactions settle.
How Ripple and Arf Plan to Finance $10B in Payments
Cross-border payment companies frequently need money available in destination markets before customers' transfers have fully settled. That creates a financing problem, particularly when businesses process billions of dollars across different currencies and banking systems.
Arf addresses this gap through settlement liquidity, advancing capital while payments are being processed and recovering it afterward. The company says its working capital turns over approximately four times monthly, allowing the same funds to finance multiple transactions.
Under the initial partnership, Arf will provide RLUSD-denominated settlement liquidity directly on XRPL while retaining responsibility for lending decisions and borrower assessments.
The agreement follows Ripple's recent DriveWealth partnership, which connected RLUSD to brokerage funding infrastructure serving more than 100 financial partners.
Ripple has also expanded XRPL's payment infrastructure through Stripe-owned Privy, supporting embedded wallets and automated transactions.
XRPL Lending Protocol Could Bring Financing Onchain
The larger opportunity involves XRPL's proposed native lending infrastructure, which would eventually allow Arf to manage more of its financing activity directly through the network.
The architecture combines Single Asset Vaults, which pool capital, with a Lending Protocol designed to support structured loans. Unlike collateral-heavy DeFi systems, the proposed lending model relies on offchain underwriting and credit assessment.
Arf has already developed against the proposed infrastructure, but activation remains dependent on validator approval.
An October 20 voting snapshot showed just 19 validators supporting LendingProtocol, compared with 29 required at the time. SingleAssetVault had 21 votes.
The latest agreement also follows Ripple's earlier institutional credit initiative with Clearpool and Cicada Partners, which similarly sought to finance real businesses using RLUSD.
