Key takeaways
- Arf will lend RLUSD to licensed cross border payment firms on the XRP Ledger, with loans usually repaid in one to five days.
- Arf reports about $10 billion in annual global settlement volume, but no RLUSD amount or initial XRPL volume was disclosed.
- A move to native onchain lending depends on the XLS-65 and XLS-66 amendments winning validator approval.
Ripple and Swiss payments lender Arf have announced a partnership that puts Ripple's dollar stablecoin to work as short term funding for licensed payment companies. The Ripple Arf RLUSD deal, announced on October 22, 2026, will let Arf hand out settlement loans in RLUSD on the XRP Ledger, with repayment usually coming back within one to five days. It is a narrow product aimed at a specific pain point in cross border payments, but it also says a lot about where stablecoins are heading: away from trading screens and into the plumbing of everyday money transfers.
What Ripple and Arf announced
Arf, a financial institution based in Zug, Switzerland, published the news on its company blog, and Ripple confirmed it in a post on X the same morning. According to Arf, the company is bringing what it calls RLUSD powered settlement liquidity to licensed cross border payment firms that use the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
In plain terms, Arf lends money to payment companies so they can pay out to customers on the other side of a transfer before their own incoming funds have cleared. Those loans will now be funded and repaid in RLUSD, Ripple's US dollar stablecoin, and the transactions will move over XRPL.
Arf says it has grown to roughly $10 billion a year in global settlement volume since it launched in November 2022, and that its capital turns over about four times a month. That figure describes Arf's existing business across all of its rails, not money that is moving on XRPL today. As crypto.news pointed out in its report, neither company disclosed a financing commitment, how much RLUSD has been set aside for the program, or how much volume will move on the ledger at first.
Arf describes itself as Swiss regulated and says it is a member of VQF, a Swiss self regulatory organization for financial intermediaries.
Who said what
Ali Erhat Nalbant, Arf's co founder and CEO, framed the problem simply in the company's announcement: payment firms need capital to keep money moving while they wait for funds to settle. He added that the partnership is about bringing stablecoin working capital to the XRP Ledger.
Jasmine Cooper, head of product for RippleX at Ripple, said in the same release that XRPL offers fast, efficient settlement while RLUSD offers a regulated dollar stablecoin, a pairing she presented as a good fit for companies that need temporary cross border liquidity.
How the Ripple Arf RLUSD setup works
The structure splits the work into clear pieces, based on Arf's description.
- RLUSD is used to send out loans and to receive repayments.
- Arf keeps underwriting and lending decisions offchain, the same way a traditional lender would review a borrower.
- XRP is still used to pay transaction fees and account reserves on the ledger.
That last point matters for anyone wondering whether this is a hidden XRP buying program. It is not. According to crypto.news, the announcement did not require payment companies to buy XRP. Arf does say the lending activity adds recurring use of XRP, since every transaction on the ledger burns a small fee and accounts must hold a reserve, but the loans themselves are in dollars.
The typical borrower is a licensed money transmitter: a remittance company, a card processor, or a firm handling international business transfers. These companies often face a timing gap. A customer in one country sends money, the payout in another country has to happen quickly, and the funds from the sender's side may take days to arrive. Someone has to cover that gap, and traditionally that meant prefunded bank accounts sitting idle in many countries. Short term credit lets a payment firm cover the payout now and settle up when the money lands.
Why this matters for stablecoins
Most of the stablecoin conversation in the US has focused on trading, savings style yields, and regulation. Payments infrastructure gets less attention, even though it is arguably where stablecoins have the clearest practical use.
This deal is a working capital product, not a consumer app. Nobody will download it. But if it scales, it gives RLUSD a steady, repeated job: money goes out as a loan, comes back a few days later, and goes out again. With Arf saying its capital turns over about four times a month, the same pool of stablecoins could support far more payment volume than its face value.
It also fits a broader pattern of large financial players testing dollar tokens for settlement. We have covered JPMorgan bringing JPM Coin to Ethereum and Samsung Wallet adding USDC transfers in the US. Regulators are paying attention too, as shown by the Financial Stability Board's report on cross border stablecoin risks and the OCC's final rule under the GENIUS Act.
For Ripple, the partnership is another attempt to show that XRPL can host real financial activity, not only token transfers. It comes shortly after a patched ledger flaw drew scrutiny, which we explained in our story on the XRP Ledger bug that could have minted XRP.
The next phase: native lending on XRPL
The first phase is direct RLUSD lending, with Arf running the credit side offchain. The bigger ambition is to move the program onto lending tools built into the ledger itself.
Arf points to two proposed XRPL amendments:
- XLS-65, Single Asset Vaults, which would let capital be pooled onchain.
- XLS-66, the Lending Protocol, which would allow structured loans to be issued from those pools.
Neither is live yet. Both must pass XRPL's amendment process, which requires support from more than 80% of trusted validators for two weeks in a row. According to an October 19 crypto.news report, the Lending Protocol had 19 supporting validators out of 29 needed, and Single Asset Vaults had 21. Arf says it has already built an implementation and is a design partner on the effort, so it is ready to switch over once the features activate on mainnet.
Arf also credits Huma Finance as a co pioneer of what the industry calls PayFi, short for payment financing, with Arf supplying the regulated infrastructure side.
Who is affected
Payment companies get another possible source of short term dollars that settles quickly, which could reduce the need to keep cash parked in accounts around the world.
RLUSD holders and issuers gain a use case beyond exchange trading. Demand tied to lending tends to be steadier than demand tied to market swings.
XRP holders see a modest indirect effect. More transactions mean more fees and reserves, but the core product is denominated in dollars, so this is not a direct demand driver for the token.
Everyday consumers are unlikely to notice anything right away. If the model works, the long run benefit would be faster and possibly cheaper international transfers, but that depends on volume the companies have not disclosed.
What to watch next
A few things will show whether this is a real shift or a press release.
- Disclosed volume. Any update on how much RLUSD is actually moving through the program would give a clearer picture than the $10 billion company wide figure.
- Validator votes on XLS-65 and XLS-66. The move to native lending depends on these amendments passing.
- Named borrowers. Neither company has identified which payment firms will use the service first.
- US policy. Rules around stablecoin issuers continue to develop, and they will shape how banks and payment firms can use tokens like RLUSD.
For more coverage of digital assets, visit our crypto news section.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Ripple Arf RLUSD partnership?
It is a deal under which Arf, a Swiss payments lender, will provide short term settlement loans to licensed payment companies in RLUSD on the XRP Ledger. Loans are typically repaid within one to five days.
Do payment companies have to buy XRP to use it?
No. According to crypto.news, the announcement does not require borrowers to buy XRP. XRP is only used for network fees and account reserves on the ledger.
Is the $10 billion figure money moving on XRPL?
No. Arf says $10 billion is its annual global settlement volume across its whole business. The companies did not say how much will move on XRPL.
When will native onchain lending start?
Only after the XLS-65 and XLS-66 amendments win enough validator support and activate on XRPL mainnet. No date has been given.
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