Key facts
- Ripple recommended retiring the XLS-38 native cross-chain bridge amendment for the XRP Ledger.
- The decision cited low developer demand and the established use of Axelar for bridging.
- XLS-38 was never activated on the mainnet and would remove over 10,000 lines of code.
- Ripple selected Axelar in June 2024 for XRPL-EVM interoperability.
- The amendment required 80% validator support for activation, a threshold that was not met.
Ripple has formally requested the XRP Ledger community to retire XLS-38, a proposed native cross-chain bridge amendment, citing a lack of developer demand and the established functionality of Axelar for the primary use case. The recommendation was made by RippleX engineer David Fuelling on August 27, 2026.
XLS-38 was designed to facilitate asset movement between the XRPL mainnet and custom sidechains via a decentralized network of witness servers. Its primary intended role was to bridge XRP to the XRPL EVM Sidechain as a native gas token. However, this plan shifted in June 2024 when Ripple selected Axelar, with its network of over 75 validators and experience across more than 55 blockchains, as the production bridge for XRPL-EVM interoperability.
Following Ripple's decision, its own UNL validator switched its vote to 'No' on XLS-38. This move provided a 12-15 month window for the community to demonstrate demand for XLS-38 on private sidechains. According to Fuelling's post, only about 11-14% of the 35 UNL validators voted 'Yes,' falling far short of the 80% support required for activation. XLS-38 never went live on any production network, and Axelar has been successfully handling the XRPL EVM bridge for over a year, as confirmed by XLS-38 co-author Mayukha Vadari.
Ripple's engineering focus has since shifted to developing live institutional-grade features, including privacy enhancements, tokenization upgrades, a lending protocol, and single-asset vaults on XRPL. Carrying unused bridge code is seen as a maintenance cost without a corresponding return. The process for withdrawing XLS-38 involves marking XChainBridge as obsolete in the xrpld repository, validators upgrading and ceasing support, and eventual code deletion. Ripple has indicated it would reconsider the recommendation if a team presents a viable use case requiring a native XLS-38 bridge, though none has yet emerged.
For investors, this is viewed as routine protocol housekeeping rather than a failure of a live bridge. No mainnet assets are locked in the XLS-38 bridge. The article suggests investors should instead monitor XRP ETF flows, which recently hit their second-largest level of 2026, and institutional positioning, noting Goldman Sachs' return as the largest XRP ETF holder. Ripple's strategic direction emphasizes real-world payment utility and integration with traditional finance rails, as illustrated by its partnership with a Korean bank to replace SWIFT.