Trusted editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and experienced editors. Ad Disclosure A longstanding issue involving the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Ripple has re-emerged, challenging the common belief that blockchain records are permanent and immutable. New focus has been placed on the XRPL’s early history, where the first 32, 569 ledgers were lost due to a technical error. As debates around blockchain transparency and trust grow, this controversy has reignited on X social media, drawing direct attention from Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), David Schwartz. Ripple CTO Addresses XRP Ledger Controversy Renewed scrutiny has arisen regarding the XRP Ledger following concerns about the missing earliest transaction records. A report shared on X revealed that potentially thousands of transactions remain lost. It explained that due to a mishap during XRPL’s initial development, ledgers #1 through #32, 569 were erased, effectively removing about the first week of activity. The earliest surviving ledger, #32, 570, has been treated as the network’s starting point, or genesis ledger. This long-standing controversy gained sharper focus after a crypto user, “RandomEyesER, ” posted on X linking the lost XRPL ledgers to larger transparency issues, questioning whether the absence of these blocks amounts to a kind of fraud.

This came shortly after Schwartz’s strong comments regarding the conviction of former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and the implications of the recently enacted GENIUS Act. The Ripple CTO stated that no good intentions could excuse the proven misconduct of SBF and his now-defunct company. RandomEyesER’s follow-up drew parallels between Schwartz’s position and the XRPL’s missing ledger history, implying a double standard in accountability. Ripple has consistently maintained that the early ledger loss does not compromise the network’s integrity or performance. Ripple explained that resetting the ledger’s index back to zero was considered at one point, but ultimately rejected to avoid disrupting network continuity. Schwartz also confirmed there was nothing the company could do to recover the missing data and clarified in an earlier May post that the missing ledgers resulted from a software bug. Although the gap in the XRP Ledger has been publicly known for years, its resurfacing has sparked open criticism from parts of the crypto community. It raises deeper concerns about blockchain reliability, immutability, and the accountability standards applied to these networks. XRPL Missing Ledgers Raise Supply Transparency Concerns Crypto community member Wazz also highlighted the missing 32, 569 ledgers on the XRPL, casting doubts on the network’s supply transparency. Wazz added a provocative perspective, calling the situation “moderately bullish” by arguing that if 99% of XRP’s supply is controlled—likely by early holders or founders—it suggests they are so wealthy they don’t need to offload tokens onto the market. Instead, according to this view, they could profit strategically by harvesting small gains during each cycle, turning XRP into what Wazz terms an “infinite money machine. ” Featured image from Getty Images; chart from Tradingview. com