Ripple has backed a new institutional credit fund that will issue RLUSD working-capital loans to fintech and payments companies through the XRP Ledger, with Clearpool and Cicada Partners handling the lending infrastructure and credit management.
CoinDesk reported on Aug. 21 that the fund will provide loans denominated in Ripple USD (RLUSD), while Cicada Partners will source borrowers, set lending terms and oversee credit risk. Clearpool is developing the infrastructure needed to create and manage the credit pools, with Ripple joining other institutions as an investor.
The companies did not disclose the planned size of the fund or the amount Ripple has committed.
Under the structure, Cicada will serve as the fund’s general partner and credit-pool manager. The firm said it has underwritten more than $860 million in credit, while Clearpool said its lending platform has facilitated more than $930 million in institutional loans since 2021.
Ripple will participate as a limited partner under the same terms offered to other investors, according to the report. Its involvement does not include a guarantee against losses, leaving borrower assessment and credit management under the structure established by Cicada.
RLUSD credit fund will finance working capital
Borrowers approved for the fund will receive RLUSD and repay their loans in the same stablecoin, giving the dollar-pegged token a direct role in the credit cycle.
The structure separates Ripple’s stablecoin from XRP’s function on the network. RLUSD will serve as the asset being lent, while XRP will continue to cover XRP Ledger transaction fees and the minimum reserve balances required for accounts.
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For Ripple, the planned fund adds lending to existing uses for RLUSD across settlement and trading. A July report from Evernorth said RLUSD had already generated more than $2.5 billion in trading across XRP Ledger pairs since its public launch, with the RLUSD/XRP pair accounting for about $900 million over six months, as previously covered by crypto.news.
Evernorth also said RLUSD’s share of on-chain trading had climbed from below 1% to around 12% during 2026. The report put RLUSD supply on the XRP Ledger slightly above its Ethereum supply at the time.
The new credit product would give the stablecoin another use if the lending system reaches the XRP Ledger mainnet, allowing institutions to supply and borrow dollar-denominated liquidity without using XRP as the loan asset.
XRP Ledger lending still awaits mainnet activation
Clearpool’s integration is currently being tested on a development network because the two XRP Ledger features needed to run the product have not completed the network’s amendment process.
XLS-65, known as Single Asset Vaults, allows funds from multiple participants to be pooled into a vault managed under defined rules. XLS-66 introduces the lending protocol that can issue, service and repay fixed-term loans directly on the ledger.
The structure places credit underwriting outside the blockchain while using XRPL to handle the movement and accounting of funds. Under the proposed system, institutions can assess borrowers and negotiate loan terms off-chain before the lending protocol manages the resulting credit position on-chain.
The proposals entered validator consideration earlier this year. A June report on the protocol detailed how XLS-66 uses Single Asset Vault liquidity for fixed-term lending while leaving borrower underwriting and risk assessment to participating institutions.
Activation requires validator approval under the XRP Ledger amendment system. Until the required support threshold and voting conditions are met, the Clearpool and Cicada product cannot operate through the planned native lending functions on mainnet.
Developers and infrastructure providers can still work with the features on devnet, giving firms time to test applications before a possible activation.
Security work has focused on XRP Ledger credit features
The lending code has undergone additional security work ahead of its proposed mainnet deployment.
RippleX developers and Common Prefix used formal verification to examine the planned lending system earlier this year. The June formal verification review covered both XLS-66 and XLS-65, with the work designed to identify edge cases that conventional software testing could miss in financial infrastructure implemented directly at the Layer 1 level.
The review examined the fixed-term lending model, which uses pooled vault liquidity and relies on off-chain credit assessment for uncollateralized borrowers. The model differs from lending systems where collateral and automatic liquidation rules handle most borrower risk directly through application-level smart contracts.
Security firm Halborn subsequently completed a re-audit of the XRP Ledger Lending Protocol. Its June lending protocol re-audit found no critical or high-risk issues after reviewing changes linked to fixed-term loans and Single Asset Vaults.
Halborn identified five findings in total: one medium-severity issue, two low-severity issues and two informational findings. The firm said all reported findings were addressed, with some resolved by Ripple’s engineering team and others accepted or acknowledged following review.
One medium-severity finding involved a way for loan interest to bypass a maximum-assets limit applied to a vault, according to the audit. Halborn’s engagement covered transaction checks, accounting rules, state consistency, parameter limits and access controls across the protocol.
XRP has rallied as the credit plan emerges
XRP has gained almost 20% over the past 24 hours to trade around $1.30 and is up about 30% over seven days, according to CoinDesk, placing the token among the strongest performers during the latest crypto market rally.
The advance followed a sharp move across major cryptocurrencies after the U.S. Treasury announced an expansion of its long-dated bond buyback program. The Treasury plans to increase the cap on individual operations from $2 billion to at least $4 billion beginning Sept. 9, a move that initially pulled long-term yields lower and weakened the dollar.
Bitcoin climbed above $72,000 during the market move, while XRP recorded a 10.4% gain on Wednesday before extending its advance into Thursday. Decrypt reported that XRP’s weekly rise reached roughly 30% after the token had traded below $1 the previous week.
XRP exchange-traded fund inflows fell from $5.81 million to $2.35 million during part of the rally, while Bitcoin ETFs attracted about $517 million, according to the same report. XRP futures open interest had also fallen 11.31% from its rally-day level as of Aug. 20.
South Korea proposes new FIU powers to investigate unregistered crypto firms
South Korean lawmakers have introduced legislation that would give the Financial Intelligence Unit direct authority to investigate suspected unregistered crypto businesses instead of relying mainly on police referrals.
Yonhap reported that People Power Party lawmaker Eom Tae-young and nine other lawmakers filed the amendment on Thursday, proposing new powers under the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, commonly known as the Specific Financial Information Act.
Under the bill, any person could report a suspected violation of the law directly to the FIU. Once a report is received, the financial intelligence agency would be allowed to investigate and analyze the suspected conduct before deciding whether further action is required.
The proposal would also allow the FIU to file complaints with relevant authorities, request criminal investigations, and hand information gathered during its review to investigators. Such powers would change the current process, under which the FIU can identify suspected unregistered operators but must depend on police and other investigative agencies to pursue most cases.
The bill has only been introduced and must pass the National Assembly before the proposed changes can take effect.
FIU could directly investigate unregistered crypto businesses
Lawmakers proposed the additional powers after enforcement data raised questions over how effectively cases involving overseas crypto operators were being pursued once they left the FIU.
According to Yonhap, police suspended investigations or preliminary inquiries into 23 of the 25 unregistered virtual asset service providers referred by the FIU between August 2022 and August 2025.
The companies and people connected to the cases were reportedly located outside South Korea, making investigations more difficult for domestic law enforcement agencies.
Giving the FIU investigative and analytical powers at an earlier stage would allow the agency that first identifies suspected registration violations to collect information before a case moves to another authority.
South Korea requires companies providing virtual asset services to residents of the country to register with the FIU, including foreign companies that actively serve South Korean customers.
As crypto.news previously reported, the FIU said in June that only 28 virtual asset service providers were registered at the time, while about 40 suspected illegal operators had been referred to investigative authorities.
The regulator said foreign businesses must follow the same registration requirements when they provide services to South Korean residents. Companies seeking registration must also meet local compliance requirements, including Information Security Management System certification.
Overseas operators have remained a key FIU enforcement problem
The FIU’s June enforcement warning provided details on how some unregistered foreign crypto businesses were reaching South Korean customers while attempting to limit their visible presence in the country.
According to the agency, some overseas operators recruited customers through Telegram and KakaoTalk open chat rooms while offering customer service in English, a setup regulators said could make their domestic activities less obvious.
Authorities also identified private currency exchange businesses selling stablecoins and other virtual assets to international students, tourists, foreign workers and people seeking transactions without disclosing their identities.
Some operators exchanged digital assets directly for Korean won or other fiat currencies, while promoters were paid to advertise foreign crypto services through YouTube channels, Telegram groups and online communities, the FIU said.
The agency warned that customers using unregistered services could face exposure to fraud, hacking and personal data leaks. Because such businesses operate outside the registered system, the FIU also said users could have difficulty recovering funds when an operator failed to deliver purchased assets.
Money laundering has remained another concern for regulators. The FIU said unauthorized crypto platforms and private exchange services could be used to conceal criminal proceeds or facilitate transfers that avoid standard checks applied by registered financial firms.
The newly introduced bill would allow the agency to pursue suspected violations of the Specific Financial Information Act itself before requesting assistance from another investigative body.
South Korea has tightened AML rules for registered exchanges too
Regulatory attention has not been limited to companies operating without registration.
Earlier this year, domestic exchanges objected to proposed changes that would require them to report overseas-linked crypto transfers worth at least 10 million won as suspicious transactions.
A May regulatory proposal drew objections from the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance, which represents registered virtual asset service providers in South Korea.
DAXA estimated that the rule could increase annual suspicious transaction reports at Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax from about 63,000 to more than 5.4 million.
The association argued that applying an automatic monetary threshold could cause large numbers of ordinary overseas transfers to be reported regardless of the risk attached to the customer or counterparty.
The dispute also involved the treatment of foreign platforms. Regulators have sought stricter controls on transactions involving overseas virtual asset service providers, while local exchanges have asked authorities for clearer standards for determining which foreign businesses should be treated as high risk.
Enforcement decisions under the same financial information law have already produced court challenges. In April, a Seoul court overturned a three-month partial suspension imposed on Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, after the FIU alleged 44,948 transactions involving 19 unregistered overseas platforms.
Bithumb separately secured a court stay against a six-month partial suspension after regulators accused it of customer verification failures and dealings with unregistered foreign companies. Coinone also obtained temporary court relief from enforcement measures connected to anti-money laundering and customer verification requirements.
Cross-border crypto transfers face separate registration rules
South Korea has also created another regulatory route for businesses moving digital assets across national borders.
Under amendments to the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, companies handling cross-border virtual asset transfers will have to register with the Ministry of Economy and Finance when the framework takes effect in December.
A June licensing report detailed how authorities were preparing enforcement regulations that could allow eligible fintech companies, alongside crypto businesses, to provide blockchain-based cross-border remittance and foreign exchange services.
The South Korean government promulgated the revised law on June 2 with a six-month grace period. Once implemented, virtual asset transfers involving South Korea and another country will fall under the country’s regulated foreign exchange system.
Companies seeking to provide the service will need to register with the finance ministry and report qualifying overseas transfers through the Bank of Korea’s foreign exchange reporting network.
Authorities have said crypto transfers previously operating outside the formal foreign exchange reporting system created risks involving illicit foreign exchange transactions and money laundering.
Applicants under the new framework must first complete virtual asset service provider registration, connect their systems to institutions responsible for transmitting foreign exchange and digital asset transaction data, and satisfy additional requirements covering facilities and qualified personnel.
