AI discovers XRP Ledger flaw that could mint 18 trillion tokens and put $94 billion market at risk

A decade-old security flaw that eluded years of reviews has compelled XRP Ledger (XRPL) developers to circumvent standard governance protocols.

An artificial intelligence agent successfully detected a long-standing XRPL bug capable of minting trillions of XRP tokens, which led directly to an emergency patch.

According to security firm Veria Labs, the vulnerability could have allowed a malicious actor to manufacture roughly 18 trillion XRP via a single payment transaction—representing about 180 times the digital asset’s original supply of 100 billion tokens.

Cayden Liao, the founder of Veria, stated that the flaw posed a severe threat to the $94 billion market capitalization of XRP by threatening to break its fixed-supply model.

The security issue was flagged on September 22 and remediated three days later. RippleX subsequently verified that no unauthorized tokens were minted, no financial losses occurred, and investigators found zero traces of exploitation across public networks. This event received public disclosure on October 9.

AI uncovers two interconnected flaws that survived a decade of audits

The discovery was driven by Veria’s AI security platform, which evaluated rippled—the software powering the XRPL—and pinpointed two distinct weaknesses that could be chained together to circumvent monetary controls.

The first weakness involved an integer overflow inside the payment engine, where carefully designed trading offers could trick the system into miscalculating the amount a buyer needed to pay.

Through this exploit, sellers would obtain their full XRP payments while buyers would be billed only a fraction of the proper cost. The discrepancy would effectively manufacture new XRP out of thin air.

A secondary vulnerability impacted the network’s supply-safeguard mechanism. Because it depended on the same flawed calculations, it failed to detect the unauthorized generation of new XRP.

Carrying out the attack required setting up hundreds of user accounts and trading offers prior to executing the payment. Official documentation notes that the exploit demanded only a few hundred XRP in mostly refundable reserves along with standard transaction fees.

The underlying payment engine logic dates back to 2015, whereas the affected supply protection tool was implemented in 2017.

This longevity is striking given the network’s extensive security history.

Liao pointed out that the XRPL source code had been subjected to over a dozen audits and competitive hacking events since 2024, which included a contest featuring a $550,000 prize pool. Its bug bounty initiatives have likewise paid out more than $1 million.

Despite those rigorous checks, the combined flaws remained hidden until Veria’s AI system spotted them, built a functioning exploit, and proved the concept on a localized network.

RippleX developers independently recreated the exploit and verified that the newly minted XRP could indeed be spent in subsequent network operations.

Veria was awarded a $250,000 payout, representing the maximum tier of the bounty program. Liao characterized it as the largest known financial reward given for a vulnerability found entirely through an AI agent.

Emergency fix bypasses decade-old governance procedures

The gravity of the find pushed XRPL developers to take an unusual step: rolling out a protocol-altering patch without waiting for the network’s formal amendment workflow.

Ordinarily, modifications to transaction rules mandate backing from over 80% of trusted validators across two consecutive weeks prior to going live.

However, developers concluded that adhering to this timeline would leave the vulnerability exposed while the network voted on the remedy.

Because the XRPL software is open source, releasing the patch details prematurely could have exposed the exploit to bad actors before defenses were active.

Instead, RippleX, the XRP Ledger Foundation, and network validators coordinated a rapid upgrade that enforced the defense immediately for servers utilizing version 3.4.1.

The patch was initially distributed in binary format, withholding the underlying source code temporarily to minimize the chance of attackers reverse-engineering the flaw during the rollout phase.

Reports indicate this marked the first intentional bypass of the amendment process for any transaction-processing update in over ten years.

This strategy came with inherent risks. Running mixed software versions meant some servers could disagree on whether an exploit transaction was valid, potentially leading to consensus disruptions or network downtime.

Even so, developers decided that a brief network disruption was far better than allowing counterfeit XRP to enter circulation.

By September 25, over 80% of validators on the default trusted list had completed the upgrade, substantially mitigating those risks.

Vet, a contributor to the XRPL Foundation, noted that the synchronized response protected network stability while establishing version 3.4.1 as the baseline software requirement following the activation of separate Batch-related amendments on October 9.

RippleX turns to AI and formal verification after security scare

The scare has driven RippleX to reevaluate its approach to safeguarding critical infrastructure, particularly legacy components that have endured years of conventional security evaluations.

J. Ayo Akinyele, head of engineering at RippleX, admitted that the incident highlighted the necessity of re-examining long-held assumptions regarding network design.

He laid out initiatives to scale up AI-driven vulnerability detection, enhance adversarial testing, and deepen scrutiny on older parts of the system, such as the payment engine, consensus protocols, and peer-to-peer networking.

The team also intends to fast-track formal verification, a mathematical process used to prove whether software satisfies rigorous security criteria.

These efforts will build upon existing formal verification work applied to the XRPL Lending Protocol and Single Asset Vault, alongside partnerships with CommonPrefix and the XRP Ledger Foundation.

Akinyele emphasized that AI is dramatically accelerating vulnerability research, creating intense pressure for developers to catch weaknesses before malicious parties deploy comparable technologies.

Echoing these sentiments, Vet warned that increasingly sophisticated AI models could render obscure vulnerabilities much simpler to exploit.

The October 9 disclosure also instituted a procedural shift: security issues previously marked as fixed must now undergo retesting against release candidates before being officially closed out.

?Frequently Asked Questions

01What caused the XRPL vulnerability?

The issue stemmed from two interconnected weaknesses: an integer overflow in the payment engine that miscalculated buyer debts, combined with a supply-protection mechanism failure that missed the creation of new tokens.

02How much XRP could have been minted?

An attacker could have potentially generated roughly 18 trillion XRP, which is about 180 times the original 100 billion token supply.

03Was any XRP actually stolen or created?

No. RippleX confirmed that no unauthorized XRP was minted, no funds were lost, and there was no evidence of the exploit being used on public networks.

04How was the flaw discovered?

The vulnerability was uncovered by an AI-powered security system operated by security firm Veria Labs, earning them a maximum $250,000 bug bounty reward.

05Why did developers bypass standard governance procedures?

Following the standard 80% validator voting process over two weeks would have left the critical vulnerability exposed while the network debated the fix.