Clearpool, Ripple and Cicada to Build Institutional Lending Market on XRPL

The XRP Ledger is expanding beyond payments and token transfers, as Clearpool, Ripple, and Cicada collaborate on a new institutional lending market. The project could bring corporate credit onto XRPL, with loans settled in RLUSD, Ripple's US dollar-pegged stablecoin launched in late 2024. Vet, the XRPL Foundation community lead and dUNL validator, says institutional "lending is coming."

The question now is whether institutional lending can also create new utility and demand for XRP on the ledger. The move would place XRPL in direct competition with established on-chain credit platforms on other chains, such as Maple Finance and Goldfinch, which have pursued the same institutional borrowing market on networks like Ethereum and Solana.

Clearpool Builds Credit Market With Ripple and Cicada

In a recent announcement on X, Clearpool said it is building the credit infrastructure using XRPL's XLS-65 Single Asset Vaults and XLS-66 Lending Protocol.

Clearpool stated: "Institutions were never missing on-chain yield. They were missing a venue built for credit."

The new project with Ripple and Cicada therefore aims to address that gap by building lending infrastructure directly on XRPL. Clearpool already operates institutional credit markets on multiple EVM chains, making XRPL its first expansion onto a ledger where lending is implemented natively rather than through smart contracts.

Most on-chain credit runs on smart contracts: flexible, composable, battle-tested. XRPL takes a different path, lending as a native ledger primitive. XLS-65 (Single Asset Vault) and XLS-66 (Lending Protocol) build the vault and the loan into the ledger itself. pic.twitter.com/WOL6HCGss7 — Clearpool (@ClearpoolFin) August 31, 2026

Under the arrangement, Cicada will handle a borrower's financial position, cash flows, and credit history before determining how much they can borrow and at what rate. Borrowers and lenders will also be required to pass KYC and AML checks. That compliance layer reflects a broader trend in institutional DeFi, where permissioned onboarding has become a prerequisite for traditional finance participants.

Ripple, meanwhile, will provide the XRPL and RLUSD for loan payments and settlements, and will also participate as a liquidity provider.

The goal is to create lending pools where vetted businesses can borrow RLUSD from institutional lenders and repay the loans with interest. These features are not live on XRPL Mainnet yet.

Could Lending Increase XRP Utility?

The immediate benefit is expected to accrue to XRPL itself, but the initiative may also create additional demand for XRP. Clearpool's lending platform is expected to connect with XRPL's native AMM, giving institutions a way to move between RLUSD and other assets. For example, market makers providing liquidity to XRP/RLUSD pools would need to hold both XRP and RLUSD. This could increase the use of XRP within the lending ecosystem and potentially remove some XRP from freely traded supply.

The XRP Ledger also burns 100% of its transaction fees. Every transaction requires a small fee in XRP, and that XRP is permanently removed from circulation.

XRPL Network Activity Continues to Boom

The XRPL network is already processing around 1.09 million transactions per day, although activity has recently fallen by 42.7% from earlier monthly levels.

At the current rate, about 117.83 XRP is burned daily, while the ledger has burned around 7,680.43 XRP over the past 30 days.

These figures show that XRPL already has strong network activity and a built-in XRP burn mechanism. However, the planned lending market is still under development, so it is too early to say how much additional XRP demand it could create.

For now, the key development is that institutional credit is being built directly around XRPL's native features, potentially giving the network another major financial use case. What to watch next is whether XLS-65 and XLS-66 move from proposal to Mainnet activation, and whether the first institutional lending pools actually attract lenders once the features go live.

Source: cryptonews.net