XRP Bridge Exploit Drains Nearly 200,000 XRP After Deposit Verification Failure

An XRP bridge linking the XRP Ledger to the tx blockchain was drained of nearly 200,000 XRP, worth about $200,000, after an attacker exploited a software flaw that treated fake deposits as real ones. According to CoinDesk, the incident allowed unbacked bridged XRP to be created and then exchanged for genuine XRP held in the bridge’s reserve wallet.

The case matters because bridges rely on tight accounting between assets locked on one chain and representations issued on another. When that accounting breaks, users can face losses even if the underlying blockchain networks continue operating normally, underscoring the operational risks that remain around cross-chain infrastructure.

The bridge connected the XRP Ledger with Coreum, which rebranded in March as tx, a U.S.-based project focused on real-world asset tokenization. In a normal bridge transaction, a user deposits XRP into a reserve wallet and receives an equivalent amount of bridged XRP on the other chain. In this incident, the attacker was able to obtain the bridged tokens without making the corresponding XRP deposit.

CoinDesk reported that the drain took place over 97 minutes on Aug. 9 before the system was halted. The bridge’s relayer setup approved payouts because its own records indicated that the deposits were valid, even though the transactions had not delivered XRP to the reserve wallet.

tx said it had identified and fixed the vulnerable code, halted the bridge, brought in blockchain forensics specialists and filed a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. The project had not yet explained how affected holders would be compensated, while on-chain tracking cited by CoinDesk showed most of the stolen XRP moved through several other addresses within hours.