Key Takeaways:
Ripple recommended the XRP Ledger community withdraw the XChainBridge (XLS-38) amendment, saying Axelar now covers the cross-chain use case.
"The primary use case that motivated XLS-38's development is fully addressed, and we believe better addressed, by the Axelar integration," RippleX said.
XLS-38 was created to provide a native bridging framework for the XRP Ledger, allowing assets to move between the mainnet and connected sidechains through "witness servers." The proposal was designed for custom sidechains, including private and permissioned networks, and was originally intended to serve as the bridge connecting XRPL to its EVM Sidechain. Ripple selected Axelar for that sidechain in June 2024, a network with more than 75 validators that supports interoperability with more than 50 blockchain networks.
Ripple cannot unilaterally remove the feature because it controls only one validator vote on the XRP Ledger. The withdrawal must proceed through the network's standard amendment process, which requires more than 80 percent of trusted validators to support a change for two consecutive weeks. The company argued that maintaining the dormant implementation has become a liability, and removing XChainBridge would let developers eliminate more than 10,000 lines of code.
The decision could be reversed. Developers building around XLS-38 have been asked to present compelling use cases that could convince Ripple to change its mind. If the withdrawal proceeds, XRPL's cross-chain roadmap shifts to Axelar, which also handles the network's connection to the EVM ecosystem.
The recommendation arrives as the XRP Ledger weighs six other amendments introduced with the xrpld 3.3.0 software release, including ConfidentialTransfer, which adds privacy-preserving transfers for Multi-Purpose Tokens, and Sponsor, which lets one account cover another's reserves and transaction costs. Those proposals target institutional tokenization, a market where more than $530 million of tokenized real-world assets excluding Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin already sit on XRPL, according to CoinDesk.
XRP traded at $1.45 as of 15:46 UTC, up 5.52 percent in 24 hours, with a market capitalization of $91 billion, according to CoinGecko. The token remains 60 percent below its all-time high of $3.65 set in July 2025.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
