XRP Account Reserve Requirements

What Is the XRP Account Reserve?

The XRP account reserve is the minimum amount of XRP that every account on the XRP Ledger must hold in order to remain active and participate in network transactions. As of December 2024, following a historic validator vote, the base reserve was reduced by 90% from 10 XRP to just 1 XRP. Additionally, each object an account owns in the ledger — such as a trust line, offer, or escrow — requires an incremental reserve of 0.2 XRP (reduced from 2 XRP). These reserves are not fees; the XRP is not destroyed but simply locked in place as long as the account holds those ledger objects.

The reserve requirement serves a critical security function: it prevents attackers from flooding the ledger with throwaway accounts and ledger objects, which would bloat the state data that every validator must store. Without adequate reserves, a malicious actor could create millions of empty accounts at no cost, degrading network performance and storage efficiency. The 90% reduction in December 2024 was made possible because the long-term value appreciation of XRP means even a 1 XRP reserve provides meaningful economic friction against spam, while dramatically improving accessibility for new users and use cases.