Solana has activated the first of five feature gates targeting a 90% reduction in refundable deposits for on-chain storage.
Anza, the network’s core development team, announced the initial activation on testnet.
The phased rollout lowers upfront capital requirements for developers creating token accounts and users joining the network. Stablecoin issuers, payment companies, and wallets are among the businesses set to benefit.
Stablecoins and payments represent some of the network’s fastest-growing use cases, making lower onboarding deposits relevant for businesses.
Solana Rent Reduction Follows Five Activation Gates
SIMD-0437, written by Anza’s Igor Durovic, lowers the lamports_per_byte constant governing minimum account balances from 6,960 to 696.
The five stages move the rate from 6,960 to 6,333, then 5,080, 2,575, 1,322, and finally 696. The first reduction amounts to approximately 9%, while the full rollout delivers the targeted 90% cut.
According to the Solana Foundation, the constant remained unchanged for years. Consequently, storage deposits increased with SOL’s value instead of reflecting validators’ actual storage costs.
Each remaining gate requires separate activation following reviews of state growth. The announcement therefore does not represent an immediate 90% reduction on mainnet.
Solana Token Account Deposits Reduce Payment Onboarding Costs
Rent is a refundable bond rather than a transaction fee, the Foundation explains. SOL remains locked while an account exists and becomes recoverable when that account closes.
The Foundation’s example places a standard SPL token account deposit at $0.159 before the changes and $0.0159 afterward. Creating one million accounts would therefore require $15,900 instead of $159,000 once all five reductions take effect.
Lower deposits reduce the fixed capital needed for mass account creation, making it easier for fintech companies and wallets to fund onboarding.
The changes support Solana’s efforts over the past year to establish itself as a settlement network beyond speculation. The payment volume rose 755.3% in 2025, alongside stablecoins from Western Union, PayPal and Fiserv.
Solana Storage Safeguards Guide Agave Rollout
Cheaper storage raises concerns about expanding on-chain state, which every validator must store and index. A sixth fallback gate can restore the original 6,960 rate.
Companion proposal SIMD-0392 permits future rent increases without disrupting existing accounts. Foundation researcher Umberto Natale’s published modeling estimated that exhausting current storage headroom after a tenfold reduction would require roughly $17.2 million in locked capital.
Natale concluded that the reduction presents no systemic risk to the cluster.
The changes ship with Agave 4.2, recommended for mainnet in August 2026. The release also includes 4,096-byte transactions and slot times halved to 200 milliseconds.
The Foundation said mainnet feature activations began the week of August 17. Existing accounts continue operating unchanged and can reduce balances to the new minimum.
