TLDR
- A two-hour dip in validator support reset the XRP Ledger bug fix countdown, moving activation from Oct. 23 to Nov. 4.
- The fix, called fixCleanup3_4_0, fell to 26 yes votes on Wednesday before recovering to 29.
- Support has since risen to 31 of 35 trusted validators, two above the 29-vote threshold.
- The patch closes a loophole that could let a burn-only account create new tokens.
- Ripple’s lending system still lacks enough validator support to start its own countdown.
A short drop in validator support has pushed back the latest XRP Ledger bug fix. Activation had been set for Oct. 23, less than two days away.
🚨 XRP LEDGER BIG UPDATE 🚨
XRPL bug fix is delayed until November 4. It closes a loophole that could let burn only accounts create new tokens.
Will this delay affect confidence in $XRP, even as ETFs have attracted $1.8 billion in net inflows since launch? pic.twitter.com/hgzHkyQvXV
— TMA | The Money Ape (@TheMoneyApe) October 22, 2026
The fix is now scheduled for Nov. 4. The delay came after the required 14-day approval period reset.
Validators are independent servers that agree on which transactions count. Changing the network’s rules needs support from more than 80% of the 35 validators the network trusts by default. That works out to 29 validators.
How the countdown works
Support is checked about every 15 minutes. It has to hold at every check for 14 days in a row. If it misses once, even briefly, the clock goes back to zero.
The fix is called fixCleanup3_4_0. It sat at exactly 29 votes on Monday. Activation was planned for 09:34 UTC on Oct. 23.
At a checkpoint at 12:54 UTC on Wednesday, only 26 validators were voting yes. That data comes from XRPL Dashboard.
By 14:46 UTC, the count was back to 29. A new countdown began at that point. XRPLWin now lists the fix as going live at 14:46 UTC on Nov. 4.
Support has since climbed to 31 of 35. That gives the fix two votes to spare on its second run. The first time, it had none.
Neither tracker shows which validators dropped off. Votes only count from validators the network hears from at each check. A server that was offline or restarting at the wrong time counts the same as a no vote.
What the patch does
The fix closes a loophole in the ledger. Under certain conditions, an account allowed only to burn an issuer’s tokens could create new ones. This is according to the xrpld 3.4.0 release notes.
The patch also changes how the lending code decides when a loan is late or in default. That code is part of a lending system Ripple has pitched to banks and payment companies since June.
In that system, lenders place XRP or other tokens in vaults. A broker then lends them out for a fixed term. The lending system is not live as of Thursday.
Binance News also reported on the delay. It said the broader lending system still lacks enough validator support to start its own activation countdown.
The fix now needs to hold at least 29 votes at every check until Nov. 4. As of Thursday, it had 31 of 35 votes.
