XRP Ledger Patches Flaw That Could Have Created Unlimited XRP

The XRPL issued an emergency binary-only patch on September 25 to fix a long-standing integer overflow in its payment engine that could have enabled supply-inflating creation of XRP; the rapid, vote-bypassing deployment prevented an apparent high-impact exploit but sparked controversy about governance, transparency, and the network’s decentralization. Developers say no public exploitation has been observed, while critics argue the fix undermines procedural oversight despite reducing systemic risk.