Arf and Ripple Partner to Offer RLUSD Settlement Liquidity to Payment Firms on the XRP Ledger
Swiss-regulated Arf will lend RLUSD on the XRP Ledger to licensed cross-border payment companies as short-term working capital, typically repaid within one to five days. A later phase depends on XRPL's proposed native lending amendments, which are not yet active on mainnet.
By Daniel Osei, Journalist, Payments and Cards
Arf, a Swiss-regulated provider of short-term working capital to payment companies, announced a partnership with Ripple on 22 October 2026 to provide settlement liquidity on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) using RLUSD, Ripple's dollar stablecoin. In the first phase, Arf will provide RLUSD settlement liquidity directly on XRPL to licensed cross-border payment, card and remittance companies. The financing is typically repaid within one to five days as payments settle.
The announcement describes what Arf will provide. It does not give a launch date, the amount of liquidity committed or the names of borrowers.
Lending against the pre-funding gap
Cross-border payment companies need cash in the destination market before their own incoming funds arrive. Arf lends that working capital for a few days and redeploys it once the borrower repays. Arf says bank credit lines can take months to set up and usually require collateral pledged in one place, a poor fit for firms whose cash needs move between markets.
Arf says it has handled about $10 billion a year in settlement volume since launching in November 2022, with capital turning over about four times a month. These are Arf's own figures. Arf is headquartered in Zug and is a member of VQF, a Swiss self-regulatory organisation. It lends only to licensed institutions.
Borrowers do not need to operate onchain, Arf says. It manages treasury between fiat and stablecoins through its bank accounts in major financial hubs, with the blockchain running in the background.
The second phase depends on XRPL amendments
Arf plans to move more of the programme onto XRPL's proposed native lending features once they are available: Single Asset Vaults, which pool capital onchain, and a Lending Protocol for structured loans. These are amendments XLS-65 and XLS-66. They still have to pass XRPL's amendment process before they can run on mainnet. Arf says it has already built against the proposed protocol and will act as a design partner. Underwriting and credit decisions would stay with Arf offchain.
"Settlement liquidity is exactly the kind of use case XRPL and RLUSD are built to support," said Jasmine Cooper, Head of Product for RippleX at Ripple.
What it means for RLUSD
The deal gives RLUSD a use as a short-term credit asset, not only a settlement token, inside payment company treasuries. Because the loans revolve, the same RLUSD can fund repeated payment flows. That use is measured by turnover, not by how much supply sits in wallets. Arf has worked with stablecoin networks before. It launched USDC working-capital financing with support from the Stellar Development Foundation in 2023, and in 2025 said it planned to join Circle's Payments Network as a credit provider. Its move to XRPL adds a Ripple-aligned channel alongside those.
The commercial test is how much of Arf's existing volume moves to RLUSD on XRPL, and when the native lending amendments activate. Neither is quantified in the announcement.
Sources
- Arf, "Arf and Ripple Partner to Bring Settlement Liquidity to the XRP Ledger", 22 October 2026: https://arf.one/arf-and-ripple-partner-to-bring-settlement-liquidity-to-the-xrp-ledger/
- Arf press releases archive (Stellar 2023 financing; Circle Payments Network plan, 2025): https://arf.one/tag/press-release/