Clearpool expands to XRPL with first institutional credit product using RLUSD

Clearpool, a DeFi lending protocol that has originated over $965 million in loans since 2021, is building the first institutional credit product native to the XRP Ledger. The product will use Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin to fund working capital loans for fintech and payments companies, with Cicada Partners handling credit management.

How the deal is structured

The three-way partnership between Clearpool, Ripple, and Cicada Partners was announced on August 20-21, 2026. Clearpool provides the lending protocol infrastructure. Cicada Partners, which has over $860 million in credit underwriting experience, serves as the credit manager responsible for evaluating borrowers and managing risk. Ripple is participating as a limited partner, contributing capital for RLUSD yield products alongside technical support for integrating the stablecoin.

The loans themselves target fintech and payments companies that need working capital, and will be denominated in RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin that launched in December 2024 and has since grown to a market cap of roughly $2.37 billion.

The product is currently being tested on XRPL’s Devnet and has not gone live on the mainnet yet. Clearpool’s lending infrastructure on XRPL relies on two proposed standards: XLS-65, which covers Single Asset Vaults, and XLS-66, which handles the Lending Protocol. Both are still awaiting validator approval before they can be activated on the main network.

Why RLUSD matters for this product

Unlike many stablecoins in the DeFi ecosystem, RLUSD operates under the supervision of the New York Department of Financial Services, with custody handled by BNY. The yield generated from these loans comes from actual economic activity—specifically companies borrowing to fund operations—rather than from token emissions or recursive DeFi strategies. Ripple’s dual role as both a technology provider and a capital contributor is structured to build utility for RLUSD beyond simple transfers.

Clearpool’s token migration and broader strategy

Alongside the XRPL expansion, Clearpool published a governance proposal on September 11, 2026, for a 1:1 migration from its existing CPOOL token to a new token called CLEAR. The proposal includes increasing total token supply from 1 billion CPOOL to 1.125 billion CLEAR, with 70% of the new supply allocated to existing holders.

Clearpool’s current total value locked sits at approximately $30 million, against $965 million in cumulative loan originations, which reflects the nature of credit markets where loans are issued, repaid, and recycled rather than sitting locked in pools indefinitely.

What this means for XRPL and institutional DeFi

If validators approve XLS-65 and XLS-66, the network would have native support for vault and lending primitives. Previous undercollateralized lending protocols in DeFi including Maple Finance and TrueFi have navigated defaults and liquidity crunches. Clearpool’s approach of using Cicada Partners as credit manager is designed to mitigate that risk. With RLUSD supervised by NYDFS and custodied by BNY, and with Cicada providing traditional credit underwriting, the product sits closer to the regulated end of the DeFi spectrum.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.