XRP Ledger Activates On-Chain KYC/AML In Major Upgrade
The XRP Ledger (XRPL) activated its “Credentials” modification on September 4, 2025 at 03:51:21 UTC, bringing a local, standards-aligned identification layer to the bottom protocol and enabling KYC/AML-aware flows straight on-chain. The improve follows the XRPL’s modification governance mannequin—an 80%+ validator supermajority maintained for 2 weeks—culminating in an EnableAmendment occasion that completely switches the brand new guidelines on for all subsequent ledgers.
XRPL Adds Native KYC And AML Controls
At the guts of the change is XLS-0070 (“Credentials”), a specification designed to let issuers attest info about an XRPL account—reminiscent of identification verification or sanctions standing—in a approach that different members can depend on with out exposing non-public paperwork to the chain. As the XRPL documentation places it, “The Credentials characteristic is a set of instruments for managing authorization and compliance necessities utilizing the XRP Ledger blockchain, whereas respecting privateness and decentralization.” The design “attracts from the W3C Verifiable Credentials normal,” adapting it in order that the topic of a credential is an XRPL tackle fairly than a URL.
Ripple’s open-source spec web site captures the institutional rationale succinctly: “Credentials present a set of instruments for managing authorization and compliance necessities on the XRP Ledger, whereas respecting privateness and decentralization”—a framing that makes the characteristic legible to regulated actors who want attestations with out constructing proprietary allow-lists.
Functionally, the modification introduces new protocol-level objects and transactions so attestations may be issued, accepted, referenced and revoked on-chain. The XRPL’s Known Amendments registry enumerates the adjustments: three new transactions—CredentialCreate (issuer provisions a credential), CredentialSettle for (topic validates it), and CredentialDelete (revocation/cleanup)—plus a brand new Credential ledger entry kind. It additionally extends the prevailing DepositPreauth characteristic so deposit authorization may be expressed by way of credential necessities, and provides a CredentialIDs subject to a number of transactions (together with Payment, EscrowFinish, PaymentChannelClaim, and AccountDelete) so a sender can current a set of credentials when interacting with a vacation spot that enforces compliance gates.
Crucially, the idea docs emphasize that private paperwork by no means contact the blockchain. In a canonical stream, a enterprise that should prohibit interactions to KYC’d accounts names trusted issuers off-chain; the issuer verifies the person privately after which writes solely a signed credential to the ledger. “The paperwork that [the user] sends… are by no means printed or saved on the blockchain,” but a number of counterparties can depend on the identical credential, avoiding redundant verification. That steadiness—on-chain attestations, off-chain proof—mirrors the W3C Verifiable Credentials mannequin whereas preserving attestations transportable throughout the XRPL’s options.
The activation additionally slots right into a broader roadmap geared toward institutional-grade rails. Credentials are a prerequisite and companion for different permissioned constructs into consideration, reminiscent of Permissioned Domains and a Permissioned DEX, which anticipate members to current legitimate credentials to entry managed liquidity or domain-scoped markets. The documentation for these proposals explicitly ties enforcement again to Credentials, underscoring that the identification layer is designed to be reusable throughout product surfaces fairly than a one-off toggle.
From an implementation standpoint, the characteristic has been seen to builders for months: Ripple’s reference server (rippled) releases highlighted Credentials amongst new amendments, the doc set shipped end-to-end steering and code samples for testing on Devnet, and explorers tracked validator votes towards the 28/35 threshold. Today’s mainnet enablement flips the characteristic from “open for voting” to manufacturing actuality, permitting issuers, exchanges, and fintechs to construct credential-gated flows that settle atomically on XRPL.
Technically, the change is conservative however far-reaching. Because CredentialIDs can now trip alongside normal Payment semantics, an establishment can—on the protocol layer—solely settle for deposits when the introduced set of credential hashes matches a coverage it has configured through DepositPreauth. That enforcement occurs with out bespoke middleware and is recorded in transaction metadata, enhancing auditability for regulated entities.
Combined with present primitives (belief traces, AMM, DEX, escrow), the trail is open to programmatic insurance policies like “settle for euro-stablecoin from counterparties with an up-to-date KYC credential from issuer X, and route cross-currency via a permissioned market if either side meet area necessities.”
At press time, XRP traded at $2.82.
