Finality
Plain definition. On the XRP Ledger, a transaction’s outcome becomes final only after a ledger closes and consensus approves the exact transaction set; an early result can still change.
Technical definition. The order in which transactions apply to the consensus ledger is not final until a ledger is closed and the exact transaction set is approved by the consensus process, so a transaction that succeeded initially could still fail and one that failed initially could still succeed. Results with tesSUCCESS or any tec code are final when included in a validated ledger, while the XRP Ledger documentation says tefMAX_LEDGER is final when a validated ledger has a ledger index higher than the transaction’s LastLedgerSequence field and no validated ledger includes the transaction. When a transaction is first submitted, the xrpld server tentatively applies it to its current open ledger and returns tentative results, which may differ from the final result.
On this site
On this site, Finality comes up in My XRP was stolen. Can I recover it?, How do I move XRP from an exchange to my own wallet without losing it?, Can a crypto transfer be reversed? and Can my XRP be frozen or taken back?.
Source
Finality of Results (xrpl.org), read October 1, 2026.