The network experienced technical issues on February 4 that caused transactions to freeze
Ripple’s XRP Ledger has successfully recovered following a network halt that disrupted validations for over an hour. The issue began on February 4, when the blockchain froze at block height 93927174 for 64 minutes. Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, explained that although consensus was functioning, validations were not being published, causing the network to fall out of sync.
The network is now recovering. We don't know exactly what caused the issue yet.
Super-preliminary observation: It looked like consensus was running but validations were not being published, causing the network to drift apart. Validator operators manually intervened to choose a…
— David "JoelKatz" Schwartz (@JoelKatz) February 4, 2025
Validator operators had to intervene manually to establish a stable starting point and restore consensus to get the network back on track. Schwartz mentioned that very few validators needed to make changes to reboot the system, suggesting the network may have recovered spontaneously. Ripple is still investigating the cause of the issue. Despite the disruption, RippleX assured users that customer funds remained secure throughout the incident.
The network halt led to delays for approximately 88,000 transactions, as data from XRPSCAN indicated that the XRP Ledger processes between 30,000 and 60,000 unique transactions per day. The downtime raised concerns over the centralization of the XRP Ledger, particularly in comparison to decentralized blockchain networks like Ethereum, which relies on a much larger pool of validators.
During the network disruption, XRP’s value briefly dropped to $2.45, but it has since rebounded by 3.2%, reaching $2.53. The token has been performing strongly over the past few months, with a 396% increase in value since November 2024, following the election of Donald Trump.
The recovery of the XRP Ledger comes amid ongoing efforts by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse to have XRP recognized as a US reserve asset, a proposal that is currently being explored by David Sacks, a key figure in the Trump administration’s crypto policy.
