Two hours, three votes: why the XRP Ledger's fixCleanup3_4_0 bug fix slipped to November, and where the Lending Protocol stands

One of the XRP Ledger's bug-fix amendments, fixCleanup3_4_0, was due to activate at 09:34 UTC on 23 October 2026. It did not. According to CoinDesk's report of 22 October, support fell below the threshold at one checkpoint for about two hours, so the two-week countdown restarted. The XRPLWin tracker now shows 4 November, 14:46 UTC. This article explains why.

Sources: CoinDesk, 22 Oct, CoinDesk, 19 Oct, Cryptonews via Yahoo Finance.

AI illustration (artist's depiction).

The XRP Ledger's rules change through amendments. An amendment activates when more than 80% of the validators on the network's default list support it, and that support holds continuously for two weeks. The list currently has 35 validators, so the threshold is 29 votes.

The network checks support roughly every quarter of an hour, on so-called flag ledgers. According to Cryptonews this happens about every 16.5 minutes. If the count drops below the threshold at a single check, the countdown restarts from zero.

CoinDesk's timeline:

1. Monday 19 October: the amendment had exactly 29 votes, nine days into its countdown.
2. Wednesday 21 October, 12:54 UTC: according to XRPL Dashboard, only 26 validators were voting yes.
3. About two hours later, 14:46 UTC: support was back at 29 and a new 14-day countdown began.
4. 22 October: support stood at 31/35, two above the threshold.

The trackers do not show which validators dropped out. According to the article, a validator that is offline or restarting at a checkpoint counts the same as a "no". Three missing votes are therefore not necessarily deliberate opposition.

Chart based on the sources linked in this article.

Citing the xrpld 3.4.0 release notes, CoinDesk and Cryptonews highlight:

• it closes a loophole through which an account allowed only to burn tokens could, under certain conditions, create new ones;
• it changes how vaults (pooled funds) round amounts on deposits, withdrawals and clawbacks;
• it refines when a loan counts as late or in default;
• it adjusts freeze, authorisation and destination handling in the Single Asset Vault and Lending Protocol code.

The amendment fixes the lending code but does not switch lending on. The system Ripple has designed has its own amendments. On 19 October CoinDesk reported 19 votes for the lending amendment and 21 for the vault amendment, with neither countdown started. Even if both had reached 29 that day, lending could not have gone live before early November.

According to Ripple's developer documentation, the design is fixed-term, uncollateralised on-chain loans funded from a Single Asset Vault. Credit assessment and risk management happen off-chain. Cryptonews gives an example: on a 1,090-token default where the broker's first-loss capital covers only 10.9 tokens, the vault absorbs a 1,079.1-token loss.

1. An offline machine counts as a "no". At a checkpoint, an unreachable validator does not count as a yes.
2. Its first run had zero votes. In an earlier round fixCleanup3_4_0 received no yes votes at all.
3. The fix comes before the feature. The lending code is being patched before anyone can use lending.
4. The tracker is not the source. According to Cryptonews, the ledger's own record has final authority, not the trackers' counts.
5. Lending has no automatic liquidation. The design has no on-chain collateral; a missed payment triggers a grace period, after which the broker may declare the loan in default.

• fixCleanup3_4_0 is now expected on 4 November, 14:46 UTC instead of 23 October, if support holds.
• Reason: on 21 October the count fell to 26 for about two hours, below the required 29.
• The amendment fixes but does not activate the Lending Protocol.
• The lending and vault amendments stood at 19 and 21 votes on 19 October.

Related reading: XRP Ledger amendments: 80% for two weeks · UNL: whom consensus trusts · Blog archive.

Educational content. Not investment advice. This article describes a technical process and says nothing about price. Data Analytic Investments is not affiliated with Ripple Labs, the XRPL Foundation, any validator or the portals cited; names are used for identification only. Images labelled "AI illustration" are not photographs.