Ripple (@Ripple) has partnered with settlement platform Arf (@arf_one) to provide settlement liquidity for licensed cross-border payment companies on the XRP Ledger (@XRP) $XRP. Under the pla
Ripple (@Ripple) has partnered with settlement platform Arf (@arf_one) to provide settlement liquidity for licensed cross-border payment companies on the XRP Ledger (@XRP) $XRP. Under the plan, Arf will use Ripple's dollar-backed stablecoin $RLUSD to fund transactions before payment firms complete settlements, typically within one to five days.
Cross-border payment companies often need money in place in destination markets before incoming transfers have settled. Such businesses often keep balances in multiple currencies and banking systems, and Arf said conventional credit arrangements can require substantial collateral and take months to establish.
Arf's offer is short-duration financing. The liquidity is typically repaid within one to five days as cross-border payments settle, allowing capital to be repeatedly deployed against real payment flows.In the first phase of the partnership, Arf will provide direct RLUSD settlement liquidity on the XRP Ledger.
The initial service targets licensed payment institutions, including businesses handling remittances, card transactions and international transfers. According to Arf, payment companies "do not need to operate onchain to benefit."
Arf's CEO Ali Erhat Nalbant said the company is meeting this need at scale. Arf cites $10 billion in annual settlement volume, with capital turning over four times a month. That figure is self-reported by the company. Jasmine Cooper, Head of Product for RippleX at Ripple, said settlement liquidity is exactly the kind of use case XRPL and RLUSD are built to support.
Arf plans to expand into native XRPL lending once the protocol launches. Once XRPL's native lending infrastructure becomes available, Arf plans to bring more of its settlement liquidity activity directly onto the protocol. That step is not yet live. Arf plans to adopt the native lending infrastructure after XLS-65 and XLS-66 receive validator approval.The service starts without the native XRPL lending protocol, which is still awaiting a vote by validators.
The arrangement also gives RLUSD a credit use case. RLUSD is Ripple's dollar-backed stablecoin, launched in December 2024.RLUSD will support settlement financing, while XRP will cover network transaction fees and applicable reserve requirements.
The partnership shows how stablecoins are being tested as working capital for payment firms rather than only as trading instruments. Its impact will depend on how much RLUSD financing licensed firms take up and on whether validators approve the lending amendments.
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