Ripple has formally recommended that the XRP Ledger community withdraw the pending XChainBridge amendment, also known as XLS-38, after determining that its primary use case is already served by Axelar and that broader developer demand has not materialized.
Mayukha Vadari, a senior software engineer at RippleX, announced the recommendation on Aug. 27, 2026. XChainBridge remains in the XRPL validator voting process and has not activated on the mainnet. The proposal was designed to provide a protocol-level framework for moving XRP and issued assets between the XRP Ledger and connected networks, using independent witness servers to monitor events and submit attestations before assets are released on a destination chain.
Ripple estimates that removing XLS-38 would eliminate more than 10,000 lines of inactive code from xrpld, the server software that powers the XRP Ledger. The company cited weak evidence of active projects requiring the native bridge, with no production deployment publicly identifying XLS-38 as essential. Maintaining the inactive implementation creates ongoing reviews, tests and compatibility work whenever developers update xrpld.
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. Ripple said the EVM sidechain is now better addressed through Axelar, while also noting that cross-chain systems introduce distinct risks; bridge exploits have caused more than $4 billion in reported losses since 2021.
Ripple cannot remove XChainBridge by itself. The company controls only one validator vote. An XRPL amendment normally requires support from more than 80% of trusted validators for two continuous weeks before activation. In the current default configuration of 35 validators, at least 29 affirmative votes would be required. Ripple has requested that developers building with XLS-38 present specific use cases before the community completes formal withdrawal procedures. If a credible active deployment emerges, Ripple could reconsider.
Withdrawal would proceed through staged software changes: first marking XChainBridge as obsolete in the xrpld codebase, causing upgraded servers to automatically vote against activation, and later removing the XChainBridge implementation and related fixXChainRewardRounding code. No pull-request deadline, software version or final removal date has been announced.
