33 Validators Back XRP Ledger Fix, Conditional Activation Set for November 4
Key Facts
The fixCleanup3_4_0 technical amendment on the XRP Ledger had the support of 33 of the 35 trusted validators tracked by XRPL Dashboard, according to a November 2 vote reported by CoinDesk. It was expected to activate on November 4, but the date remained conditional on the required support continuing until the voting period was complete. The amendment addresses a flaw in PaymentBurn permissions that could, under certain conditions, allow an account authorized to burn issued tokens to create new tokens. The tokens concerned include assets issued on the ledger, including stablecoins. CoinDesk said XRP’s supply itself is not affected by the issue, which concerns permissions for handling issued tokens.
XRP Ledger documentation sets out the activation mechanism: an amendment must maintain support from more than 80% of trusted validators for two weeks. If support falls to 80% or below, the amendment is temporarily rejected and the two-week period starts again. A vote count recorded at a single moment is therefore not enough to ensure that implementation will begin on the expected date. The requirement means that support staying above the threshold throughout the period determines the actual activation date. November 4 therefore remained a forecast published on November 2, not a confirmed date or proof that the fix had taken effect.
The fix is related to an issue in controls for burning issued tokens, not a change to the rules governing XRP issuance or its supply. CoinDesk reported that the flaw could allow an account granted issuer-token burning permissions to create fungible tokens under certain conditions. The publication added that it had found no public records or reports indicating that the vulnerability had been exploited. The fix aims to close this potential path by rejecting PaymentBurn payments that exceed a zero balance, according to the official release notes. The change is a targeted remedy to a permission control on the network, within a broader package of software fixes.
The fixCleanup3_4_0 package is not limited to PaymentBurn; it also bundles fixes for the vault, lending, automated market maker and permissioned decentralized exchange systems. It also includes changes related to trust lines, non-fungible tokens, escrow, sponsorship, signatures and permission delegation. The release notes list these items as part of the 3.4.0 release fixes, without describing them as a general improvement to ledger efficiency. Version 3.4.0 of xrpld, the reference implementation of the XRP Ledger protocol, became available on September 17, 2026. The package was included in that release, but activation of the amendment itself remained subject to validator voting and the specified support period.
On price, XRP/USD closed at $1.2834 on November 3, compared with a close of $1.2502 on November 2, according to EL7 daily data. This provides a comparison between two consecutive closes, while the technical vote remained the focus of the news in the November 3 session. These two closes do not establish that XRP outperformed Bitcoin during the session, and no reliable verification of that claim was available. Price data remained separate from the amendment’s activation condition, which is determined by validator votes and their continued support above the threshold. The available sources did not provide a measure of Bitcoin’s price movement for comparison with the XRP close cited here.
XRP Ledger documentation warned against delegating PaymentBurn permissions before fixCleanup3_4_0 activates, recommending that this specific permission not be granted until the amendment takes effect. The warning reflects the risks associated with the flaw remaining in place before activation is complete, despite the broad support recorded for the amendment. Separate amendments for the lending system had not reached the threshold to start the countdown period in the November 2 reading. The main lending amendment had 19 votes, while the vault amendment on which it depends had 21 votes, against 29 votes needed for each to start the activation period. If they had reached that threshold on November 2, the earliest expected date for lending activation would have been November 18, according to CoinDesk’s estimate.