Ripple's Institutional Lending Market Takes Shape with Clearpool and Cicada
The XRP Ledger is expanding its capabilities beyond payments and token transfers as Clearpool, Ripple, and Cicada work on an institutional lending market. The project aims to bring corporate credit onto XRPL, with loans settled in $RLUSD.Vet, a community lead and dUNL validator for the XRPL Foundation, has confirmed that 'institutional lending is coming.'
Clearpool's new initiative uses XRPL's native features, specifically XLS-65 Single Asset Vaults and XLS-66 Lending Protocol. According to Clearpool, institutions were not missing on-chain yields but rather a venue built for credit. The project addresses this gap by building lending infrastructure directly on XRPL.
Cicada will handle borrowers' financial positions, cash flows, and credit history before determining how much they can borrow and what rate they should pay. Lenders and borrowers will also need to pass KYC and AML checks. Ripple will provide the $RLUSD for loan payments and settlements and 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. However, these features are not yet live on XRPL Mainnet.