Privacy is Coming to Ripple's XRP: What We Know

Privacy features are coming to the XRP Ledger. A top XRPL contributor confirmed an upcoming protocol-level upgrade on March 9, 2026, and the timing could not be better: the U.S. Treasury just gave privacy tools on public blockchains a formal green light.

Two major narratives collided this week, and XRP is at the center of both.

What Did the XRPL Contributor Actually Say?

Vet (@Vet_X0), a decentralized UNL (Unique Node List) validator and a well-respected long-term contributor in the XRPL ecosystem, quote-tweeted RippleX Head of Research Aanchal Malhotra on March 9:

"Privacy is coming on XRP. Significant enabler for institutional usage. Aanchal greatly noted, we have an upcoming amendment tackling exactly this. Getting us the best privacy version for issued assets (MPTs), by combining privacy and compliance with selective disclosure keys."

Vet had already hinted at the feature in February 2026. The immediate trigger was Malhotra's post, which flagged a new U.S. Treasury report that explicitly endorses privacy tools on public blockchains.

What Is the Actual Upgrade?

The proposal originated as XLS-372, "Confidential Transfers for MPTs on XRPL," opened for discussion in September 2025 in the XRPL Foundation's standards repository on GitHub. That discussion has since been closed and redirected to a refined spec under XLS0096-confidential-mpt (Confidential Transfers for Multi-Purpose Tokens). The primary authors are Murat Cenk and Aanchal Malhotra, both of RippleX, with five additional contributors and feedback from David Schwartz.

Key technical points:

• Scope: This covers Multi-Purpose Tokens (MPTs), the issued asset standard on XRPL. Native XRP balances are explicitly out of scope.
• Encryption: Balances and transfer amounts are encrypted using EC-ElGamal combined with Zero-Knowledge Proofs. Validators can still enforce supply limits and prevent double-spends without seeing the actual amounts.
• Balance structure: Each holder gets a split confidential balance, separating spending and inbox amounts, so incoming transfers do not leak data to third parties.
• Compliance layer: Issuers and designated auditors hold decryption keys or use an on-chain AuditorPolicy for selective disclosure. Regulators get visibility only when legally required.

As of March 10, 2026, XLS-0096 has not yet moved to a validator vote. Community and RippleX commentary point toward a potential 2026 rollout, possibly in the first half of the year.

What Did the U.S. Treasury Actually Say?

The March 2026 Treasury report to Congress, published as part of GENIUS Act implementation, marks a clear shift in tone from the 2022 to 2024 era of blanket mixer enforcement. The report states that lawful users of digital assets may use mixers to maintain financial privacy when transacting through public blockchains, citing consumer spending habits, personal wealth, business payments, and charitable donations as legitimate use cases.

Multiple outlets described it as a sharp reversal from the aggressive stance that led to the Tornado Cash sanctions in 2022. Malhotra and Vet both referenced the report directly in their posts, framing it as regulatory alignment with what XLS-96 is being built to deliver.

Why Does This Matter for Institutions?

Vet described confidential MPTs as a "significant enabler for institutional usage," and the surrounding context backs that up. The XRPL already carries on-ledger KYC and AML tooling, Credentials, Permissioned Domains, and a Permissioned DEX, all of which are now live on mainnet. XLS-96 fills the remaining gap: transaction privacy with built-in compliance controls.

That combination, encrypted transfers plus auditor access on demand, is what banks and regulated financial institutions need for real-world asset tokenization, tokenized funds, and private payment rails. The privacy is opt-in at the asset level, not imposed network-wide, which matters for issuers operating under specific regulatory frameworks.

Secondary coverage from Yahoo Finance and CoinDesk noted that Ethereum is moving in a similar direction, but XRPL's approach is permissioned by default, better suited to institutional clients operating under strict compliance requirements.

What Is the Timeline and What Could Slow It Down?

The path to activation runs: refined spec, then a Draft Pull Request, then a validator vote requiring an 80 percent supermajority held for two weeks. No hard date has been given publicly.

One important distinction: this is not Monero-style full privacy for the native XRP token. It is opt-in confidentiality for issued assets built on the MPT standard. That framing matters for setting expectations in the community.

The regulatory environment has shifted in its favor, the engineering work is in motion, and the institutional compliance stack is now live on mainnet. The pieces are falling into place. A date is the only thing missing.

Sources:

• Vet (@Vet_X0) on X - XRPL contributor confirming the upcoming privacy amendment, March 9, 2026
• Aanchal Malhotra (@aanchalmalhotre) on X - RippleX Head of Research post referencing the U.S. Treasury report
• XLS-96: Confidential Transfers for Multi-Purpose Tokens on GitHub - Current active spec, successor to the original Discussion #372
• U.S. Treasury GENIUS Act Report (March 2026) - Congressional report on illicit finance and digital asset privacy tools