XRP Ledger Security Scare: Critical Bug Patched After Exploit Attempt

A recently discovered vulnerability in the XRP Ledger’s developer toolkit could have led to severe consequences, but swift action prevented potential disaster. Here’s what happened and why it matters for the XRP ecosystem.

XRP Ledger Bug Patched After Serious Flaw Discovered

A threat actor exploited a developer’s NPM access token to publish illicit code to the XRP Ledger network, which could have been catastrophic. The issue was discovered in recent versions of a toolkit used to build apps that work with the XRP Ledger. Aikido Security researcher Charlie Eriksen first spotted the problem. The flaw only affects versions of Node Package Manager (NPM), a site where developers share reusable code for projects.

Coinbase Launches XRP Futures with $100M Daily Volume

Coinbase officially launched XRP futures contracts on its U.S. Derivatives Exchange on April 21. The XRP futures saw strong performance, with daily trading volume already surpassing 100 million USDC. The futures include Standard Contracts for large institutions and active traders, and retail-oriented “nano” contracts for smaller investors. This strong start indicates increasing demand and interest from both retail and institutional traders.

XRP’s Potential to Rival Bitcoin in Asset Tokenization

XRP has shown similar performance to Bitcoin over the past five years. In the future, both currencies will compete in tokenizing real-world assets. XRP has an advantage with almost free and instant asset transfers. Its blockchain can be upgraded quickly, benefiting financial institutions using it for cross-border transactions. However, it remains to be seen if XRP will replace Bitcoin.

Ripple NPM Package xrpl.js Hacked to Steal Private Keys

The official Ripple package XRP Ledger (XRPL), an NPM package used by thousands of websites and apps, was compromised. Attackers installed a backdoor to extract crypto keys, gaining access to private wallets. The breach was discovered when five suspicious packages were added to the repository. The malicious code communicated with a newly registered domain name, 0x9c.xyz, during the wallet creation process. XRP was the main target, but the breach could have caused severe damage to crypto markets and led to a supply chain disruption.