Decade-Old XRP Ledger Bug Could Have Minted XRP Out of Thin Air; Silent Patch Exposed

The XRP Ledger quietly patched a 2015 payment engine flaw that could have let an attacker mint spendable XRP beyond the network’s fixed supply for just a few hundred XRP in reserves. The vulnerability lay in the code that settles payments on the ledger’s built‑in decentralized exchange.

Although the fix was deployed silently, it prevents a potential inflation attack that could have undermined XRP’s tokenomics and investor confidence. Analysts note the incident highlights both the robustness of the Ledger’s response mechanisms and the importance of ongoing audits to catch long‑lived flaws.