XRP gains FedNow access via Volante as 47% prefer third-party rails

XRP settlement is now accessible on FedNow-connected infrastructure through Volante Technologies, giving US banks a Ripple-linked payment rail without direct Federal Reserve endorsement.

Deepak Gupta, SVP and Global Head of Payments-as-a-Service at Volante, said the "#1 preferred approach to connectivity, according to the Barometer, is via a service provider that can quickly connect institutions to multiple networks."

The 2023 Faster Payments Barometer found 47 percent of organizations prefer connecting to FedNow and The Clearing House's RTP network through a third-party service provider, while 32 percent plan direct connections. Volante's Ripple integration has been active since October 2015, when the company launched its VolPay Hub Ripple integration capability. In 2016, Volante partnered with Ripple to build software designed to accelerate connections to Ripple's real-time cross-border payment solution.

The integration places XRP within reach of institutions routing through Volante, which sits between financial institutions and the payment networks they need to reach. But the Federal Reserve has not endorsed XRP for FedNow, and the gap between infrastructure availability and official backing could drive volatility if markets overprice the significance.

Volante connects institutions to both FedNow and The Clearing House's RTP network. The 2023 Barometer found 92 percent of respondents consider interoperability across compatible systems important, and Volante's multi-network structure addresses that directly. Its Ripple integration extends that structure to include XRP as a settlement option.

Ripple is simultaneously pushing deeper into institutional credit. The company backs a new credit fund with Clearpool and Cicada Partners that deploys RLUSD as a primary lending asset on the XRP Ledger. Clearpool has facilitated over $930 million in institutional loans since 2021, while Cicada Partners has underwritten more than $860 million in credit. The fund's viability depends on the XLS-66 and XLS-65 amendments, which require 80 percent validator approval on the XRPL; voting has reached approximately 40 percent.

The broader pattern is clear: The Clearing House consortium — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo — is building a shared tokenized deposit network targeting the first half of 2027, and the Agentic Payments Alliance, including Visa, Mastercard, Fiserv, Circle, Solana, and Remitly, is setting agent-commerce standards. Industry is building infrastructure ahead of regulation, and Ripple is building XRP and RLUSD into that race.

For XRP holders, the Volante connection is a concrete step toward institutional payment use in the US banking system. But without Federal Reserve endorsement, the token's role remains that of a settlement option through third-party infrastructure — not an official component of FedNow. Traders should watch whether the market prices in more than the infrastructure actually delivers.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.