XRP Ledger’s XAO DAO Plans Major Governance Upgrades to Boost Community Participation

XAO DAO is preparing a series of governance changes for the XRP Ledger over the next two to three months, according to Fabio Marzella, the organization’s co-founder.

The planned changes would let members delegate voting power, adjust quorum rules, and access community mini-grants, as the DAO looks to make participation easier and more representative, at a moment when several XRPL projects have already scaled back or shut down.

XAO DAO Targets Broader Participation

Marzella said the first change would introduce wallet delegation, allowing members to hand their voting power to others when they lack the time or expertise to vote on individual proposals.

The DAO is also reviewing its quorum requirements, including how inactive wallets count toward proposal thresholds. The stated aim is to prevent inactive participation from blocking decisions while keeping governance tied to the active community.

Community mini grants are another planned addition. Under the proposal, members would be able to submit smaller initiatives and seek funding for projects that contribute to the XRPL ecosystem.

“These aren’t changes for the sake of change,” Marzella wrote. He said the broader goal is to create a DAO where the community has “the ability to act” rather than simply having a vote.

The timing comes as questions around developer support have grown within the XRPL community. On August 13, Marzella said the shutdown of Gen3’s retail platforms showed that funding developers alone does not solve the problem of building lasting businesses.

Gen3, an XRPL infrastructure team, said on August 12 it would spin down two of its retail products, aigent.run and AxiomProtocol, citing weak user demand and rising infrastructure costs. Gen3 said the platforms will stay live for another month, until September 13, so users can withdraw remaining funds, and that it will keep running its core XRPL infrastructure and take part in the ledger’s amendment process.

Marzella pointed to the Gen3 news as evidence of a bigger problem, arguing that funding developers only solves half the issue if there’s no path from a funded project to a sustainable business. Builder Handy Andy, replying in the same thread, described colleagues quietly calculating how much longer they can keep funding their own work without support, calling it “the last roll of the dice” for some.

Activity Is Up

The reshuffle comes as XRP closed near a 21-month low this week, and Santiment data shows daily active addresses averaging 35,700 in August, up from 26,400 in July, even though the number of new wallets has stayed almost flat.

That distinction may matter for XAO DAO’s participation plans. More activity among existing users does not automatically mean a larger pool of people taking part in governance.

As it stands, Marzella has not provided a final timetable or detailed voting mechanics for the proposed changes, instead promising that more information will follow as each initiative progresses, leaving the community to see how delegation, quorum changes and mini grants are eventually implemented.