- The XRP Ledger experienced an hour of downtime yesterday due to an unknown network error.
- The issue was caused by a disparity between consensus (which was still operating) and validator publishing (which was not).
- Ripple’s CTO has suggested the protocol may have self-resolved the issue, however it’s also possible the actions of a single validator revived the network.
- XRP fell 6% on the news, dropping below US $2.40 for the second time this week.
The horror week for XRP has gone from bad to worse, following a reported network outage on the XRP Ledger.
After Trump’s trade tariffs sent the market spiralling, most coins in the top ten are down double-digit percentages over the past week. However, XRP is near the top of the list, falling 23% in the last seven days of trading.
Thankfully for XRP holders, the coin had a bit of a cushion following an inspired renaissance to end 2024.
But the euphoria has been put on hold for now, and XRP Ledger’s technological issue may unsettle an already slowing market.
Related: Blunder by DPRK Hackers Leads to $121K XRP Loss; Ripple Co-Founder’s Accounts Also Breached
Network Spill Cause Unknown, Ripple’s CTO Says
The network outage, reported on Tuesday (US time), saw validations on the XRP Ledger freeze for about an hour.
The exact cause of the issue isn’t known. However, according to Ripple developers, the protocol managed to ‘spontaneously recover…’ and was back up and running without the loss of any assets or transactions.
Throughout the outage, consensus was operating as intended but validations weren’t ‘being published’, which resulted in the network halt.
One validator, noticing the issue, reached consensus on a ‘sane’ starting point (the last fully validated block) and the XRP Ledger was back in action.
It’s worth noting that this is just a theory posed by David Schwartz, Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer.
He also points out it’s still unknown whether it was the validator’s intervention that resuscitated the XRP Ledger, or if the protocol administered the defibrillator itself.
Market Reacts to XRP Downtime With Sell-Off
Network outages are generally quite rare for the top blockchain protocols. Bitcoin, for example, has only (reportedly) gone under twice – and both circumstances happened more than a decade ago.
However, last year the community watched as Solana’s network went down for nearly five hours in March, and then another 2 hours in November.
And this is the XRP Ledger’s second outage since November last year, although the previous instance was only partial.
Nevertheless, network downtime can cause serious damage to a project’s reputation.
Thankfully Ripple’s recent spill had no financial repercussions – but that wasn’t enough to prevent the native token from sliding 6% in the aftermath of the news.
Despite recent struggles, XRP is still trading 15% higher on the year.
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