The XRP Ledger (XRPL) has taken a decisive step toward a major structural upgrade, with validators voting to approve the introduction of Permissioned Domains. According to community commentary shared by software engineer Vincent Van Code, the amendment has received the necessary validator consensus, with support currently at 85.29%. This surpasses the required threshold of over 80% consensus from trusted validators, which must be sustained for two consecutive weeks before activation.
The amendment has now entered its standard two-week activation window, with an expected activation date of February 4, 2026. This process is a core feature of the XRPL, ensuring network-wide agreement and preventing any single entity from forcing changes. If support drops below 80%, the amendment is temporarily rejected, and the two-week period restarts.
In a related development, RippleX has issued a critical alert to node operators. The team reminded operators to upgrade their software to version 3.0.0 ahead of January 27, 2026, when a suite of five technical fix amendments are set to activate on the mainnet. Failure to upgrade will result in servers becoming amendment blocked, a security feature that prevents outdated nodes from misunderstanding ledger data, processing transactions, or participating in consensus.
The upcoming fixes include fixTokenEscrowV1, fixIncludeKeyletFields, fixMPTDeliveredAmount, fixAMMClawbackRounding, and fixPriceOracleOrder. These amendments resolve various accounting errors, missing metadata fields, and rounding issues, particularly within the Automated Market Maker (AMM) and escrow systems.
Permissioned Domains represent a more profound shift. They allow the creation of controlled, gated environments within the public XRP Ledger. A domain owner can restrict participation to accounts holding specific verifiable credentials. This enables institutional use cases without altering the open nature of the base ledger, moving development away from off-chain workarounds or private chains.
As explained by Vincent Van Code, this unlocks possibilities for permissioned decentralized exchanges for regulated trading of tokenized securities, stablecoins, and real-world assets, as well as controlled lending protocols and restricted liquidity pools. This development aligns with a broader trend of institutional entry into the XRPL ecosystem, a point underscored by Ripple CEO's discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos 2026 regarding deeper integration with global financial infrastructure.
