XRP Ledger developers lower base reserve for accounts to 1 XRP amid price surge
Dec 3, 202410:04 AST
XRP Ledger developers have lowered the base reserve for accounts by 90% from 10 XRP ($26.80) to 1 XRP ($2.68) amid the recent surge in the price of the cryptocurrency.
According to onchain data, the change was implemented at 10:45 p.m. UTC on Monday, validated in ledger 92508417. The base reserve requirement represents the minimum amount of XRP that must be held in an XRP Ledger account to keep it active. The adjustment was made via a fee voting process where validators on the network collectively agreed on changes to the reserve settings. It aims to make the network more accessible by lowering the cost of creating and maintaining accounts, encouraging increased activity.
The XRP Ledger's reserve requirements were last reduced from 20 XRP to 10 XRP in September 2021 during the prior crypto bull market when the price of XRP was around $1. The reserve increment fee was also reduced by 90% from 2 XRP to 0.2 XRP on Monday, meaning that for each additional item an account owns, such as trust lines (connections to non-XRP assets like USDC), offers (buy/sell orders on the native DEX) or escrows, an extra 0.2 XRP is required to discourage excessive resource consumption.
“XRP Ledger reserves just dropped,” XRPL validator “Vet” confirmed. “Activating an XRP account now costs 1 XRP. Holding a Token Trustline only 0.2 XRP. Excessive XRP is now freed up in your account that you can spend now.”
Among other validators supportive of the change, ahead of the implementation, XRPL Labs said that while increased activity on the ledger could be challenging, it was a “good problem to have” and infrastructure providers were already "stepping up their game” anyway.
XRP surges 448% in a month
The timing of the reduction coincides with a significant increase in XRP's price, which has surged over 448% during the past month, according to The Block’s XRP Price Page, currently trading for around $2.68.
