XRP Bridge Exploited for $200,000 After Flaw in Deposit Verification

A bridge connecting the XRP Ledger to the tx blockchain, formerly known as Coreum, lost nearly 200,000 XRP worth about $200,000 after an attacker exploited a flaw that let the system register deposits that were never actually made.

How the Exploit Unfolded

The bridge normally works by holding XRP in a reserve wallet and issuing an equivalent amount of bridged tokens on the other chain, which can later be redeemed for the original XRP. In this case, the software mistakenly treated certain transactions as valid deposits even though no XRP had been sent to the reserve.

This allowed the attacker to generate bridged tokens without backing them, then redeem those tokens for real XRP. The drain took place over about 97 minutes on August 9 before the bridge was halted. Each withdrawal was approved by a majority of the bridge’s relayer network, which acted correctly based on the flawed records it received, with the root issue traced to a missing verification step in how deposit destinations were checked.

Team Responds With Fix and FBI Complaint

The tx team confirmed the vulnerability, said it has since been patched, and reported bringing in blockchain forensics experts while filing a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. The stolen funds have already moved through several other addresses on-chain.