Ripple and Arf Bring RLUSD Settlement Liquidity to the XRP Ledger
By Crypto Wire
October 22, 2026
Ripple and Swiss-regulated Arf on October 22, 2026 announced a partnership to bring RLUSD-powered settlement liquidity to the XRP Ledger for licensed cross-border payment companies. Per Crypto Briefing and crypto.news, Arf will lend short-term working capital — typically repaid in one to five days — in RLUSD on XRPL so firms can settle without pre-funding destination accounts. Arf CEO Ali Erhat Nalbant said the firm already manages about $10 billion in annual settlement volume, with capital turning over roughly four times a month. This is a Stablecoin Settlement Desk chapter: PayFi working capital on a dollar stablecoin rail — not an XRP price catalyst and not a retail RLUSD mint promo.
Phase one is direct RLUSD liquidity on XRPL before native lending is live. Later phases aim to plug into XRPL Single Asset Vaults and the Lending Protocol once amendments XLS-65 and XLS-66 activate; crypto.news noted mid-October validator support still short of the 80% / two-week threshold (LendingProtocol ~19 of 29; SingleAssetVault ~21). Arf says underwriting stays offchain even after onchain loan plumbing ships. Loans are in RLUSD; XRP covers fees and applicable reserves — no announced requirement that borrowers buy XRP. The deal does not disclose an RLUSD allocation size or initial XRPL volume for the new corridor.
Arf is a VQF member in Switzerland (Zug HQ; Istanbul/London/New York offices), serves licensed institutions only, previously ran on Stellar, and merged with Huma Finance in 2024. Keep this file separate from Ripple Prime RWA-swap tape chapters and from SoFi Earn / Vantage tokenized-deposit files — those are bank deposits or bank-to-bank remittances, not MSB settlement credit in RLUSD.
For settlement desks, the useful cut is corridor design: replace idle nostro pre-funding with 1–5 day RLUSD credit on XRPL for licensed MSBs — volume and allocation still undisclosed.
Settlement watch: Watch the first dated RLUSD loan volume or corridor list from Arf/Ripple, plus whether XLS-65/66 clear the validator threshold so phase-two vault lending can leave the design-partner stage.
Bottom line: Arf will lend short-term RLUSD on XRPL for licensed payment firms — ~$10B annual settlement book, no disclosed first-corridor volume yet.
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