RippleX Discloses 10-Year XRP Ledger Bug and Warns of AI-Driven Exploit Risks

A newly disclosed flaw in the XRP Ledger's code could have allowed unauthorized token creation, prompting warnings about AI-assisted exploit discovery.

RippleX has disclosed a security flaw in the XRP Ledger that existed undetected for approximately ten years. The bug, according to the company, could have theoretically allowed an attacker to mint XRP outside the network's fixed supply rules. Ripple's development team says the vulnerability has since been patched, and no evidence has emerged that it was ever exploited.

Accounts of the flaw's scale vary across reporting. One outlet described the risk in terms of billions of XRP potentially being created. Another cited a theoretical maximum tied to the ledger's token-supply architecture, putting the figure as high as 18.45 trillion XRP. A third report framed the exposure in dollar terms, estimating roughly $94 billion in value could have been at stake. These differences reflect how the underlying mechanics of the bug can be measured, but all accounts agree the flaw touched the core mechanism governing XRP issuance.

The XRP Ledger was designed with a fixed total supply, a feature often cited as a selling point for the network's predictability. A bug that could circumvent that cap strikes at a foundational assumption underpinning XRP's value proposition. RippleX's disclosure comes alongside a broader warning about how artificial intelligence could change the threat landscape for blockchain security.