Why a bug that could have threatened XRP's 100 billion supply cap stayed hidden for years
A critical integer overflow bug in the XRP Ledger, which could have allowed for the unauthorized minting of tokens, remained undetected for over a decade. The vulnerability was recently discovered and patched by developers, with no evidence of exploitation.
Why it matters
The discovery highlights the risks inherent in long-standing blockchain code and the importance of continuous security audits for decentralized financial systems.
The 11-year-old bug mattered because it threatened the core rule XRP holders rely on: that the total supply can never exceed the 100 billion coins created at the blockchain’s debut in 2012. It was uncovered Sept. 22 by researcher Cayden Liao and Veria AI and reported internally.
No damage was done, according to RippleX, which shipped the fix. No new XRP was created and about 99.986 billion XRP remain in circulation today, the foundation said.
The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is an open-source, decentralized layer-1 blockchain. Its native token, XRP, was built so that no new tokens can ever be minted. The coin is primarily used to pay transaction fees and bridge currency trades on the ledger's built-in decentralized exchange (DEX).
However, the bug, believed to have existed since 2015, provided a way around that, at least in theory.
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