Ripple’s research team has unveiled a proposal aiming to add enhanced privacy features to the XRP Ledger, following the release of a technical paper outlining a method for privacy-preserving token transfers. The initiative targets regulatory and institutional requirements for token issuers, focusing on controls such as freezing and the retrieval of assets where necessary.
Confidential token proposal details
The new proposal, detailed in a study by Murat Cenk, Aanchal Malhotra, and Joseph Ayo Akinyele, introduces Confidential Transfers for Multi-Purpose Tokens, also known as Confidential MPTs. This approach is positioned as a cryptographic advancement based on the XLS-33 token standard, which became active on the XRP Ledger mainnet in October 2025.
Confidential MPTs rely on EC-ElGamal encryption to secure per-account balances, replacing traditional plaintext representations. The model also utilizes non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptography technique that makes it possible to verify transaction validity and balance sufficiency without revealing underlying amounts to network validators.
Despite the additional privacy these tokens offer over existing standards, sender and recipient addresses remain visible on-chain. This preserves the XRP Ledger’s account-based infrastructure and ensures that transaction metadata required by regulators is still accessible.
“To accommodate regulatory and institutional requirements, Confidential MPTs provide cryptographic auditability through an on-chain selective-disclosure model based on multi-ciphertext balance representations and equality proofs, while remaining compatible with simpler issuer-mediated audit models,” the paper’s abstract notes.
Regulatory landscape and timing
The research coincides with shifting regulatory attitudes. Earlier in March, a report published by the US Treasury Department for Congress recognized that law-abiding users sometimes need privacy tools such as mixers when conducting transactions on public blockchains. This acknowledgment has been seen as a step toward balancing privacy and compliance in the sector.
Aanchal Malhotra, one of the paper’s authors and currently Director of Research at Ripple, commented that the approach is designed to deliver regulatory transparency where necessary while protecting user privacy where possible. Ripple, based in San Francisco, specializes in providing enterprise blockchain solutions and is known for its ongoing development of cross-border payment products and support of the XRP Ledger.
The project’s design intends to offer “regulatory visibility where it matters, user privacy where it should. This is the standard to build toward,” Malhotra emphasized in a statement following the publication.
The arrival of the privacy paper matches Ripple’s broader strategy to improve both privacy and security across XRPL. Recently, Ripple outlined plans to implement AI-driven security enhancements for the ledger, targeting evolving threats and strengthening the network’s foundation for institutional adoption.
