XRP Ledger set to slam shut burn-only minting loophole

The XRP Ledger is set to switch on a long-queued fix Wednesday, Nov. 4, closing a loophole that let burn-only accounts mint tokens. The amendment, fixCleanup3_4_0, has 33 of 35 trusted validators behind it, according to XRPSCAN's amendment record, with XRPL's voting data showing 94.29% support. If that holds, activation lands around 9:46 a.m. ET.

Here's the bug: an account trusted only to destroy tokens could push through a burn-only payment larger than the balance it was redeeming. With no check in place, that payment crosses zero and starts issuing fresh tokens instead. The patch throws out those over-sized burn payments, rebuilding the wall between burning and minting — though a delegate holding both permissions can still cross it by design.

XRPL's own documentation has warned issuers against delegating token-burning rights until the amendment goes live, since the permission can double as a minting key in certain situations. The caveat covers issued tokens, not XRP itself.

Getting here took a reset. XRPL Dashboard's ledger-history tracker shows support sliding to 26 validators on Oct. 21 before the amendment clawed its majority back the same day. Amendments need more than 80% of trusted validators for two weeks — 29 votes out of 35 — and activation waits on a network voting checkpoint rather than firing the moment that clock runs out.

More repairs are queued behind it. A separate package in code review, fixCleanup3_5_0, tackles who can receive restricted tokens rather than who can mint them, The Defiant reports. One proposal would force anyone acquiring a liquidity-pool token to first be approved for both assets sitting in that pool — deposits already need that sign-off, but pool-token transfers can skip it, potentially leaving a recipient holding an asset its issuer never approved. Another would stop unauthorized balances from absorbing new funds and block redemptions from crossing zero into a brand-new unauthorized holding.

Developer ckeshava's earlier proposal notes that unauthorized balances already live in ledger history, some born from an older NFT-trading loophole, though it puts no number on them. Under the current payment proposal those existing balances stay spendable — issuers would still lean on freezing controls to stop them from moving.