You might expect that the blockchain behind the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency would earn top marks for security after more than a decade of operation.
But you’d be wrong — at least according to blockchain research firm Kaiko.
The XRP Ledger, which underpins the XRP token, ranked last for security in Kaiko’s latest quarterly Blockchain Ecosystem Ranking, scoring just 41 out of 100.
That was the lowest among the 15 blockchains analysed, trailing Polygon at 44 and Stellar at 45, while Ethereum topped the category with 83.
Kaiko’s ranking evaluates blockchain networks across five criteria: governance, integration, liquidity, operational efficiency, and security.
The security component includes assessments of operational resilience, validator decentralisation, audit frequency, and past incidents to evaluate infrastructure risks.
While Kaiko did not publish individual sub-scores, senior analyst Adam Morgan McCarthy told DL News that “the main issues were the hack earlier this year, a poor Nakamoto coefficient, and a low number of validators.”
The Nakamoto coefficient score is a metric that estimates how many entities would need to collude to compromise the network, compared to other proof-of-stake chains.