The XRP Ledger activated a critical security amendment, fixCleanup3_4_0, on November 4 at 14:52 UTC at ledger 108,112,129, closing a vulnerability in its permission delegation system that could allow unauthorized creation of issued tokens.
According to XRPLWin amendment tracker data, the fix had been delayed after an earlier October voting period failed to meet the network’s requirement of more than 80% validator support for 14 consecutive days. Initial voting began October 9, but support dropped below the required threshold on October 21. A renewed majority later that day started a second approval period lasting 14 days and five minutes before activation.
The vulnerability stemmed from the Permission Delegation feature, under which accounts can delegate authority. In particular, accounts holding PaymentBurn permission, commonly used by stablecoin issuers to destroy tokens during redemptions, could under certain conditions also exercise minting authority when delegated payments crossed a zero-balance boundary. The update separates token burning and token minting permissions, restricting transactions to prevent unauthorized token creation.
XRP Ledger developers noted the issue affected issued assets such as stablecoins and Multi-Purpose Tokens, not XRP’s own supply or production mechanism. The amendment also introduced additional corrections for decentralized trading, transaction signatures, and asset management, including safeguards against unintended liquidity provider token destruction in automated market maker clawback transactions, stronger permissioned trading restrictions, and fixes for escrow reserves, Multi-Purpose Token authorization, and transaction signing. Accounting corrections also support Single Asset Vaults and the proposed XRP Ledger lending protocol, though lending features still require separate validator approval.
Separately, XRP Ledger transaction fee burns surged 627% to 1,821.11 XRP on November 3, the highest daily burn total recorded within one month, compared with about 250.37 XRP burned on October 4. Since the network permanently destroys transaction fees rather than paying them to validators, higher burns gradually reduce the circulating supply of XRP.
