XRP Ledger Lending Protocol Approval Needs 29 Votes Before Activation Window Begins

Key Facts

Voting on the proposed lending system for the XRP Ledger is advancing, but activation still requires meeting the network’s support conditions. According to network documentation, each amendment must receive support from more than 80% of trusted validators for two consecutive weeks. On the default list of 35 validators, that means 29 votes are required. The process requires this condition to be met for both the LendingProtocol amendment and the SingleAssetVault amendment, not just one of them. If support falls below the threshold, the two-week period starts again. Reaching the required number alone is therefore not enough to begin lending on the mainnet.

The proposed design enables fixed-term, unsecured loans funded by pooled assets in vaults dedicated to a single asset, according to XRP Ledger documentation. Loan arrangements and settlement are recorded on the network, while borrowers’ creditworthiness is assessed and risk is managed off-network. CoinDesk described the proposed use as lending to banks and payment companies. But the absence of collateral means depositors’ protection depends on the intermediary’s assessment of borrowers and the amount of capital it sets aside to absorb losses first. If a borrower defaults, depositors may incur losses. This makes the intermediary’s risk management a key factor in the model.

The LendingProtocolV1_1 amendment was included in rippled 3.4.0, which added closed vaults with stages for subscribing, investing and redeeming. The vaults amendment shifts accounting to a cash basis, so interest is recorded as revenue only when payments are actually collected. The fixCleanup3_4_0 fixes amendment also went into effect on the mainnet on November 4. The fixes included handling updates to loan information when a loan defaults, loses value or is canceled. These changes show that lending development involves operational and accounting amendments alongside the vote on the protocol itself.

The network checks the status of amendments at validation ledgers, which occur typically about every 15 minutes, according to XRPL documentation; activation, however, remains conditional on support continuing throughout the specified period. Developers are also working on a third lending amendment, LendingProtocolV1_2. An open request dated November 4 proposes making the creation of a loan and its associated collateral fail as a single unit if another loan has already been made through the same intermediary. In an earlier test of the fixes amendment, support rose to 33 out of 35 validators on November 2, after falling to 26 on October 21. That drop restarted the countdown, before the amendment later went into effect. The voting tracker does not publish a public record naming validators who changed their positions; it only publishes vote counts.