XRP Ledger Restores Operations After Outage

The XRP Ledger, Ripple’s blockchain network, experienced a 64-minute outage on February 5, temporarily halting transactions before fully resuming operations.

According to Ripple CTO David Schwartz, the disruption was caused by a “network drift,” where block validations failed to publish despite consensus running. This led to a temporary freeze in transaction processing across the network.

Interestingly, Schwartz noted that only one validator appeared to intervene manually—or the network might have “self-healed” through its built-in consensus mechanism.

“It looks like, as far as we can tell, only one validator operator manually intervened. It’s still not entirely clear if that solved the problem or the network self-healed,” Schwartz explained.

How Did XRP Ledger “Self-Heal”?

Schwartz’s reference to self-healing highlights XRP Ledger’s consensus model, where a supermajority of validators must agree on a starting point to continue block production.

This means that even if some validators fail, the network can reorganize and continue without centralized intervention—a key feature of its decentralized structure.

Wallet Services Temporarily Affected

The outage briefly disrupted wallet transactions, with Xaman Wallet, XRP Ledger’s equivalent to Solana’s Phantom wallet, reporting transaction failures.

Despite the disruption, Schwartz confirmed that no assets were lost, easing concerns over potential damage to user holdings.

However, not everyone was convinced. Crypto analyst MartyParty criticized XRP Ledger’s low throughput, suggesting that its native token, XRP, may struggle to remain viable.

“$XRP goes down at 20 TPS. I don’t think $XRP will work out,” he stated, referencing the blockchain’s limited transactions per second compared to competitors.

XRP Price Struggles Amid Market Uncertainty

XRP’s price dropped 6% during US trading hours on February 4, struggling to hold above $2.50 while trading below key moving averages on higher time frames.

The network’s outage, combined with broader market uncertainty, reinforced a bearish short-term outlook—one that could intensify if negative sentiment persists ahead of the US Jobs Report on February 7.

Additionally, Bitcoin’s failure to break past $100,000 has led to a market-wide retreat, potentially impacting XRP’s momentum and price action.

With the network back online, all eyes are now on whether XRP Ledger can maintain stability—and if XRP can regain its footing amid a shaky crypto landscape.