Ripple recommends withdrawing XLS-38 amendment from XRP Ledger

Ripple has recommended that the XRP Ledger (XRPL) community withdraw the XLS-38 amendment, a long-standing proposal designed to provide a native cross-chain bridging framework. The company stated that the technology is no longer necessary for its primary intended use case and has failed to attract sufficient developer demand.

The XLS-38 amendment was originally intended to facilitate asset movement between the XRPL mainnet and various sidechains, including the XRPL EVM Sidechain. However, Ripple shifted its strategy in June 2024, selecting the Axelar network to handle interoperability for the EVM Sidechain. Axelar currently supports over 50 blockchain networks and utilizes more than 75 validators.

Engineers noted that withdrawing the amendment would allow for the removal of more than 10,000 lines of code from the xrpld codebase, reducing technical liability. Because Ripple only controls one validator vote, the withdrawal must proceed through the network’s standard amendment process. The amendment never reached the 80% support threshold required for activation, with only a small minority of UNL validators voting in favor.