Clint Boerner, co-founder and CTO of Ark Institute, recently voiced concern over a steep transaction fee he encountered while using the Xaman Wallet (formerly Xumm). While trying to swap PLR tokens for XRP, his wallet requested a massive fee of 10,000 XRP—worth roughly $21,000. Although the transaction failed due to insufficient funds, Boerner warned that a full wallet might have approved the fee without alert.

He later noted that another transaction, sent from a different wallet with a Xaman Pro subscription, charged a standard 0.09 XRP fee. He shared this to highlight the inconsistency and mentioned he was still awaiting a reply from Xaman’s support team.

XRPL Labs Clarifies the Issue

Wietse Wind, XRPL Labs founder and lead developer of Xaman, addressed Boerner’s concern. He clarified that the 10,000 XRP fee was not real but a built-in safeguard. According to Wind, the system automatically blocked the transaction because it attempted to exchange an unrealistic 100 billion XRP.

Wind explained that Xaman’s backend sets a hard cap on payloads to prevent extreme or malicious inputs. 

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This failed transaction triggered that cap, and the exaggerated fee was a way to ensure the request would not proceed. He confirmed the backend has since been updated to prevent similar issues caused by third-party tools.

Ripple CTO and XRPL Team Weigh In

Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, commented on the issue as well. He described the event as a rare edge case that evaded earlier code checks but confirmed that XRPL Labs had resolved it.

XRPL Labs engineer Denis Angell added further clarification. He said the system calculates swap fees based on the amount of XRP involved. In this instance, the user tried swapping 100 million XRP, which inflated the fee. Angell assured that Xaman’s verified swap providers use accurate exchange rate formulas, which protect users from such scenarios when using the Swap feature.

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Web3 consultant Danella Draper urged users to be cautious when interpreting such incidents. She suggested Boerner may have unknowingly attempted a transaction close to the full ledger value. 

Draper emphasized the need for technical understanding before making public claims, warning that such misinterpretations could harm Xaman’s reputation. She noted that the platform has reliably served the XRP Ledger for years.