Support for XRP Ledger Lending Protocol rises to 22 validator votes
Key Facts
The number of validators supporting the LendingProtocol amendment on the XRP Ledger rose to 22 votes by November 10, up from 19 votes on October 19, CoinDesk reported on November 12. The new votes appeared in the November 10 snapshot, and the count had not changed by Wednesday, November 11. This puts the proposal closer to the threshold for starting the activation period, but does not mean lending is available on the network. The XRP Ledger amendment process requires support from more than 80% of trusted validators for two consecutive weeks before an amendment can activate. If support falls below 80%, the amendment is temporarily rejected and the two-week period starts over.
According to XRP Ledger documentation, the lending protocol enables fixed-term, uncollateralized loans funded by assets pooled in a single-asset vault. Loans are executed on the network, but borrowers’ creditworthiness assessments and risk management depend on off-chain processes. This makes the intermediary that originates loans and manages their risks a central part of the system’s design. A single-asset vault pools assets from multiple depositors for use in the lending protocol. The system therefore requires approval of the vault amendment alongside the lending amendment.
The LendingProtocolV1_1 specification includes an amendment for closed-ended vaults, with cash-based accounting. It divides the vault cycle into 3 phases: subscription, investment and redemption. These phases define how deposits are accepted, deployed to originate loans and then withdrawn. This means a vote on the lending protocol alone is not enough to make the proposed vault cycle available. In the November 10 snapshot, the vault amendment had 23 votes, compared with 22 for the lending protocol, CoinDesk reported.
The vote followed activation of a software fix that addressed parts of the lending code before it became usable. CoinDesk said the fix took effect on November 4 at ledger index 108,112,129. On the same date, developers opened pull request 8685 to propose a third amendment, LendingProtocolV1_2. The request was still open when CoinDesk prepared its report. The amendment addresses the possibility of two loans being created for the same intermediary at nearly the same time by making transactions associated with opening a loan and its collateral accounts fail together if another loan precedes the operation.
Pull request 8685 adds an option to check loan sequencing; if loan creation fails, the associated collateral accounts are also canceled as part of the grouped transaction. According to the request’s description in the XRPLF repository, enabling this option causes LoanSet to fail, while an atomicity condition reverts the collateral accounts. This proposal remains separate from the ongoing vote on LendingProtocol, and the open request does not establish a timeline for its approval. The next step for the main amendment remains reaching the required support threshold and maintaining it for two weeks. Approval of the vault amendment, meanwhile, remains necessary to pool depositors’ funds and use them for loans.
In the market, EL7 daily closing data showed XRP/USD closed at $1.0565 on November 10, then at $1.0524 on November 11. These prices coincide with the voting update in time, but the data do not establish a causal link between the price move and the proposal. Protocol documentation also explains that capital allocated to cover losses can serve as an optional reserve if borrowers default. If available coverage falls below the required minimum, the intermediary cannot issue new loans or receive fees, and fees are added to capital to make up the shortfall. This places coverage adequacy, underwriting practices and off-chain risk management among the operational considerations for the proposed system.