The XRP Ledger (XRPL) has returned to normal functionality after an unexpected halt in block production disrupted network activity on Tuesday.
The pause, which lasted for about an hour, prevented transactions from processing until the issue resolved itself. Validators quickly launched an investigation to determine the cause of the disruption, which occurred at ledger height 93,927,173.
Investigating the Cause of the Halt
Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz explained that validators observed that consensus was operational. However, validation messages were unpublished. This caused the network to become desynchronized.
After the last fully validated ledger, manual intervention was required to establish a stable starting point. Once a few validations appeared from different sources, the network regained coordination and restored operations.
An initial assessment by Schwartz suggested that very few Unique Node List (UNL) operators made direct adjustments. He speculated that the network may have spontaneously recovered without coordinated action.
Meanwhile, the incident raised concerns over transaction security, but validators confirmed that no assets were lost. The network only experienced a temporary lack of trusted ledgers, leading to a short-term processing delay.
XRPL Validator Adjustments
Last year, updates to the UNL increased the number of validators to 36 while maintaining an 80% quorum threshold. At the same time, an inactive validator linked to the University of Korea was removed, reducing the total number of active validators to 35.
Some critics argued that these changes could create future complications, though Daniel Keller, CEO of the XRPL, reassured the community that all nodes continued to propose blocks.
They are still on it. The quorum is still 28, all 35 nodes are proposing.
— Daniel "CEO of the XRPL" Keller (@daniel_wwf) February 4, 2025
Previous XRPL Network Disruptions
This was not the first instance of technical difficulties affecting the XRP Ledger. On November 25, 2024, a separate disruption occurred when multiple nodes crashed and restarted simultaneously.
This incident led to a 10-minute pause in transaction processing before the network stabilized and resumed forward progress.
During that event, XRPL’s consensus model prioritized security over transaction processing. As a result, the network temporarily halted new transaction validations to prevent inconsistencies.
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