Ripple has recommended withdrawing the XRP Ledger’s pending XChainBridge amendment after concluding that its primary use case is already served by Axelar and broader developer demand has not emerged.
Summary
- Ripple recommends withdrawing XChainBridge after Axelar replaced its intended XRP Ledger EVM Sidechain role entirely.
- The pending amendment would add native asset bridges using independent witness servers between connected ledgers.
- Removing XChainBridge could eliminate more than 10,000 lines from the XRPL server codebase, Ripple estimates.
- Ripple controls one validator vote and cannot withdraw or activate the amendment unilaterally today alone.
- Developers with active XLS-38 projects can present evidence before the community completes withdrawal procedures formally.
Mayukha Vadari, a senior software engineer at RippleX, announced the recommendation on Aug. 27. XChainBridge, also known as XLS-38, remains in the XRPL validator voting process and has not activated on the mainnet.
Ripple estimated that withdrawing the proposal would allow developers to remove more than 10,000 lines of code from xrpld, the server software that powers the network. No code has been removed yet, and Ripple cannot complete the process independently.
XRP Ledger no longer needs XLS-38 for its EVM sidechain
XLS-38 was designed to provide a protocol-level framework for moving XRP and issued assets between the XRP Ledger and connected networks. Its intended users included public sidechains, private ledgers, permissioned networks and experimental chains.
The system relies on independent witness servers to monitor events on each connected ledger. Witnesses submit attestations confirming that assets were locked or destroyed before corresponding assets become available on the destination network.
One of the proposal’s main use cases was connecting the XRPL mainnet with its Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible sidechain. Ripple later selected Axelar to provide that connection instead.
The XRPL EVM Sidechain launched with Axelar as its mainnet bridge in June 2025. Axelar’s validator network verifies cross-chain messages and connects the sidechain with XRPL and other supported blockchains.
Ripple said the EVM sidechain is now “better addressed” through Axelar. That remains the company’s technical assessment rather than a finding reached through an independent security comparison.
Weak developer demand changed Ripple’s assessment
Ripple initially kept XLS-38 available because developers could still use it for private sidechains and specialized networks that Axelar was not designed to support.
However, the company said it found little evidence of active projects requiring the native bridge. No production deployment has publicly identified XLS-38 as essential to its planned operations.
Maintaining the inactive implementation still requires reviews, tests and compatibility work whenever developers update xrpld. Ripple argued that this creates an ongoing maintenance burden without providing a corresponding mainnet benefit.
The recommendation does not mean the broader XRPL ecosystem has abandoned interoperability. Ripple pointed to Axelar, Wormhole, zero-knowledge systems and layer-2 designs as alternative approaches suited to different security and privacy requirements.
Cross-chain systems also introduce distinct risks. As previously reported, bridge exploits have caused more than $4 billion in reported losses since 2021, making verification design and operational security central considerations.
Ripple cannot remove XChainBridge by itself
The official XRPL registry lists XChainBridge as a pending amendment with a default “no” vote. Ripple operates only one validator vote among the network’s independent participants.
An XRPL amendment normally requires support from more than 80% of trusted validators for two continuous weeks before activation. With 35 validators in the current default configuration, at least 29 affirmative votes would exceed that threshold.
Ripple’s recommendation therefore neither withdraws the amendment immediately nor forces other validators to oppose it. Validators decide independently which amendments their infrastructure supports.
That separation is consistent with other XRPL proposals. In related coverage, Ripple’s support for lending amendments did not establish their activation because the proposals still required the broader validator threshold.
Withdrawal would proceed through staged software changes
Ripple proposed beginning with a pull request that marks XChainBridge as obsolete in the xrpld codebase. Servers upgrading to that release would automatically vote against activation.
Support would decline as validators install the updated software. Once active validators recognize the amendment as obsolete, developers could remove the XChainBridge implementation and the related fixXChainRewardRounding code in a later release.
No pull-request deadline, software version or final removal date has been announced. The timing depends on community feedback, code review and validator upgrades.
Ripple has asked developers or organizations building with XLS-38 to present specific use cases. A credible active deployment could lead the company to reconsider its recommendation before the staged withdrawal begins.
