A massive transfer was made involving almost $15 billion in XRP, the controversial cryptocurrency associated with Ripple. reported on Sunday.
A massive transfer was made involving almost $15 billion in XRP, the controversial cryptocurrency associated with Ripple. reported on Sunday.
This transaction, involving 25.6 billion XRP, attracted attention due to its large size, representing almost half of the total circulating XRP supply of approximately 54 billion.
The anomaly first came to public attention through a tweet from @whale_alert, an account known for tracking large cryptocurrency transactions.
Community reactions
The transaction immediately sparked intense speculation and confusion within the crypto community. Featured voices, like the one voiced by Scott Melker disbelief on the legitimacy of the transaction given its magnitude.
Adam Cochran, another notable figure in the space, questioned whether Bitfinex, a popular cryptocurrency exchange, was moving its cold wallets or if something more nefarious was at play.
The size of the transaction was not only surprising, but also raised concerns about the security and stability of the XRP ledger.
The explanation of the CEO of Bitfinex
Later, Bitfinex CEO Paolo Ardoino shed light on the situation. He revealed that the transaction was, in fact, an attempted attack on Bitfinex using a method known as a “Partial Payment Exploit.”
This exploit takes advantage of the way the XRP ledger processes partial payments, potentially allowing attackers to misrepresent transaction amounts.
However, the attack was unsuccessful due to Bitfinex’s strong security measures, particularly its handling of the “delivered_amount” data field, a critical component in preventing such attacks.
The “delivered_amount” field in XRP transactions is designed to accurately represent the amount of XRP delivered to the recipient, protecting against partial payment fraud.
Bitfinex’s proactive approach in this case prevented what could have been a significant security breach.
