Ripple Partners With Arf to Bring RLUSD Settlement Liquidity to the XRP Ledger

Ripple and Arf, a Swiss-regulated financial institution, have announced a partnership to bring settlement liquidity based on Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin to the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The announcement was made on Oct. 22. It focuses on short-term working capital for licensed cross-border payment companies.

Cross-border payment firms often have to pre-fund transactions in the destination market while they wait for payments to settle. Traditional bank financing for this can take months to arrange and may require substantial collateral. That can limit the liquidity available across international markets. Arf's model is built around short-duration financing. The liquidity is typically repaid within one to five days, once the underlying cross-border transactions settle.

Under the first phase of the arrangement, Arf will provide direct settlement liquidity using RLUSD on XRPL. That gives payment companies access to funding while their transactions are in transit. RLUSD is Ripple's dollar-denominated stablecoin. XRPL is the public blockchain that Ripple's payment efforts are associated with. Ripple said the partnership combines a regulated dollar-backed token, a settlement network and a specialist provider of short-term payment finance.

Arf says it processes almost $10 billion in annual global settlement volume and has operated since November 2022. Its co-founder and CEO, Ali Erhat Nalbant, said the company's capital turns over about four times a month. He described the problem as a funding gap that payment companies face while they wait for funds to settle. Arf operates as a Swiss-regulated financial institution and is a member of VQF, a Swiss self-regulatory organization. Its model combines fiat and stablecoin treasury management with on-chain infrastructure for payment activity.

Jasmine Cooper, RippleX's head of product, said XRPL's fast settlement and RLUSD's regulated dollar infrastructure make the network suitable for institutional liquidity financing.

The announcement also looks ahead to a second phase. Arf plans to integrate XRPL's proposed native lending infrastructure once it becomes available. That infrastructure includes Single Asset Vaults, which pool capital, and a Lending Protocol, which extends structured loans. Arf would then expand its settlement liquidity activity onto those tools. Reports on the partnership say RLUSD would support the financing activity, while XRP would be used to cover network fees and reserves on the ledger.

The news fits a wider push by Ripple to expand the use of RLUSD in payments and institutional finance. Ripple has also been reported to have partnered with CryptEscrow to extend crypto payments into real estate transactions. Stablecoin-based settlement is a growing area of competition among blockchain networks. Firms are testing whether on-chain dollars can reduce the time and capital that cross-border payments tie up.

Some details remain unclear. The lending features that Arf intends to use are described as proposed or not yet available, so the timing of the second phase depends on when they launch. The announcements do not give a figure for how much RLUSD liquidity will be deployed on XRPL. Market commentary around the news has been mixed. One analysis noted that XRP was defending the $1.30 support level and that a daily close below it could strengthen a bearish outlook. That is technical commentary, not a prediction, and the partnership does not guarantee any particular price outcome.

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