Ripple is collaborating with lending platform Clearpool and credit management firm Cicada Partners to introduce an institutional credit fund on the XRP Ledger network, targeting fintech and payment companies with working capital loans settled in the RLUSD stablecoin. In this arrangement, Cicada takes charge of borrower selection, setting loan terms, and overseeing credit risk, while Clearpool supplies the infrastructure for creating and managing lending pools. Ripple, alongside other institutional players, steps in as a capital provider. The total size of the fund and Ripple's specific investment amount have not been made public yet.

The product has not gone live on the XRP Ledger mainnet as of now. Clearpool is currently running integration tests on the development network, and the two core ledger features supporting this product—the lending protocol XLS-66 and the single-asset vault XLS-65—still require approval through the network's amendment voting process. Ripple is participating in the fund as a limited partner on equal footing with other investors and does not offer any loss guarantees.

Borrowers will both receive and repay loans in RLUSD, a mechanism that directly fuels demand for Ripple's dollar-pegged token and draws lending activity onto the XRP Ledger network. XRP itself is not used as the lending asset; it only serves to cover transaction fees and minimum account balance requirements. Notably, Cicada Partners has underwritten over $860 million in credit to date, while Clearpool has facilitated more than $930 million in institutional loans since 2021.

The launch of this credit fund comes amid a broad uptick in major cryptocurrencies. Driven by macroeconomic factors such as the U.S. Treasury's expansion of its bond buyback program on Wednesday, XRP has surged nearly 20% over the past 24 hours to $1.30, marking a 30% weekly gain and its strongest performance in months.