Ripple announced plans to eliminate more than 10,000 lines of unused XChainBridge code from the XRP Ledger as it prepares to launch native lending. The proposal aims to reduce the ledger’s attack surface. The XRPL has experienced repeated security incidents, with more than $1.31 billion lost across 344 breaches in the first half of 2026 according to CertiK. Code vulnerabilities remain the most common attack vector. Ripple said the XChainBridge amendment (XLS‑38) was intended to enable assets to move between the mainnet and sidechains, but demand for private sidechains did not meet expectations. The company estimates that removing the code will lower maintenance burden, contributor complexity, and potential attack surface. The change will first mark the code as obsolete; validators must adopt a software version that stops voting for the amendment before it can be removed in a later release. Ripple left open the possibility of revisiting the change if developers demonstrate continued need for the bridge. The upcoming Lending Protocol V1.1 is undergoing an AI‑only security review by Sherlock’s Audit Engine, which combines multiple AI auditors and specialized models. Sherlock has not disclosed any findings or a completion date. Ripple previously subjected the lending code to independent audits, a $200,000 attackathon, community testing, fuzzing, formal methods, and an AI‑assisted red‑team program that identified seven confirmed bugs between March and May, including an inverted invariant, a fee‑free spam vector, and an integer‑overflow issue. All identified issues have been addressed. The broader security program also uncovered high‑severity issues in other parts of the XRPL codebase earlier in the year, prompting fixes for crash paths, bounds‑checking problems, and cross‑feature interactions. Ripple cautioned that AI tools generate false positives and that human review remains essential for subtle bugs. Ripple aims to streamline the ledger while subjecting the upcoming lending functionality to increased scrutiny, reflecting the industry’s ongoing challenge of balancing innovation with security.