XRP Ledger Developers Must Settle 2 Token-Approval Amendments Before Mainnet

Two Open Pull Requests, Two Closed

XRP Ledger developers still owe the network a decision on two amendment proposals that harden how accounts receive tokens whose issuers demand approval, and neither change has reached mainnet rules yet. The pair, filed as PR #8648 and PR #8650 in the XRP Ledger Foundation's server software repository on October 27, both remained open as of Monday, November 2. Two companion discussions, #8649 and #8651, have been closed, leaving the two narrower amendments as the live track.

The first, #8648, targets the liquidity provider tokens of automated market maker pools. When an account would receive such an LP token, the proposal requires a check of the authorization requirements on both assets that make up the pool, so a single unauthorized asset stops the receipt. Liquidity providers currently deposit into these pools, where TVL records the total value locked, and the proposal's text argues that verifying approval at deposit time alone may not stop later transfers of the LP token. The check therefore extends beyond deposits to payments, trade offers, non-fungible token sales executed through a dApp, and AMM auction bids, covering every route on which the LP token can move.

The second, #8650, addresses trustlines that already carry a balance. Today's approval check on payment paths only operates when the balance sits at zero, so an account that was never approved can keep receiving tokens as long as it holds a residual amount. The amendment would block those further receipts while keeping the redemption path intact, the route that returns an existing balance to the issuer. That narrower scope separates it from the closed #8649, a broader proposal that would have restricted all uses of unapproved balances.

Require Auth and the 80% Validator Path

The proposals build on Require Auth, an issuer-side setting that marks a token as holdable by approval only. Official ledger documentation states that an account's trustline must be authorized before it can hold such a token, and a trustline is the on-ledger relationship between an account and a token issuer. An unauthorized trustline means the issuer has not cleared that holder, whatever screening the issuer applies. The regime covers issued tokens only; the native asset behind the XRP price needs no issuer gate, a split that keeps the ledger's tokenomics distinct from its base currency. Issuers that screen holders, among them platforms preparing a yield-bearing stablecoin, lean on the setting to control who can receive their asset, which is why the receipt paths under review carry compliance weight.

Activation follows a fixed path. Amendments change transaction-processing rules, and official documentation requires that an amendment ship inside a software release and then hold support from more than 80% of trusted validators for two weeks before it activates. Both new proposals connect to the fixCleanup3_5_0 amendment, so their fate runs through that release cycle. Timing can shift along the way: the expected activation date of fixCleanup3_4_0 moved from October 23 to November 4 under the same validator-support condition. Open status places the new pair in the review stage, where maintainers read the code, request changes and decide whether the logic belongs in a release candidate. Merging, inclusion in a release and a validator vote stand between the proposals and mainnet rules.

The Compliance Hole #8650 Closes

The residual-balance gap #8650 patches is a practical compliance hole rather than a theoretical one: under current rules an unapproved account holding leftover tokens can keep receiving them, which is exactly the outcome issuers using Require Auth try to prevent. Choosing the narrower fix over the broader closed proposal keeps redemption flows intact while closing the receipt route, at the cost of leaving other uses of unapproved balances open for a future round. Taking both through review together also keeps the fixes aligned, since #8648's pool-level checks and #8650's balance-level rule serve the same issuer control. Ledger activity continues in parallel: a reported 1.8 billion XRP move in 24 hours kept transfer volume high, Ripple unlocked 1 billion XRP from escrow on November 1, and Ripple itself gates direct RLUSD redemption behind approved contracts, all consistent with issuer-side controls shaping the ledger. What remains outstanding sits with the developers: merge both pull requests, ship them in a release, and then hold above-80% validator support for two weeks. Nothing activates before the next release cycle closes.