Support for the fixCleanup3_4_0 amendment fell to 26 of 35 trusted validators at a Wednesday checkpoint, below the 29 required, resetting a 14-day countdown that was less than two days from finishing.
An upgrade to the XRP Ledger that was due to switch on Thursday will not arrive until next month, because support for it slipped briefly below the required threshold.
The amendment, known as fixCleanup3_4_0, needed backing from at least 29 of the network's 35 trusted validators, more than 80%, held for 14 consecutive days. At a checkpoint at 12:54 UTC on Wednesday, support fell to 26, according to XRPLWin data. That reset the countdown less than two days before it would have completed. Support has since recovered to 31 validators, and activation is now projected for about 14:46 UTC on Nov. 4.
What the fix does
The amendment closes a loophole that could have let an account permitted only to burn an issuer's tokens create new ones instead, and it adjusts how lending defaults are calculated. Two larger amendments that would enable lending products on the ledger, LendingProtocol and SingleAssetVault, are still short of the 29 validators they need.
A separate slowdown
In unrelated news, XRP Ledger operators said on Wednesday that "some XRP Ledger closings are running slower than usual," with ledger closes taking up to 50 seconds on Tuesday, and that a fix was in progress. The network did not stop. Nothing links the slow closes to the dip in validator support.
Why a short wobble costs so much
The rules are designed to make changes hard. Requiring a supermajority held for two straight weeks protects the ledger from rushed upgrades, but it means that a margin of zero, which is where this amendment stood earlier in the week with exactly 29 votes, leaves no room for even a short lapse. One checkpoint cost two weeks.
That matters for Ripple's plans to offer lending services to banks on the ledger, which depend on the larger amendments clearing the same process.
XRP traded at about $1.33 early Thursday, down about 2.8% on the day, in line with the broader crypto decline and with no move tied to the amendment.
What to watch
Whether support stays at or above 29 validators through Nov. 4; progress on the lending amendments; and the operators' fix for slow ledger closes.