Accounts and keys · Lesson 1 of 4

Addresses and accounts

An account is identified by its address: a string of letters and numbers that starts with r.

An XRP Ledger account holds XRP and sends transactions. It's identified by its address, a string of letters and numbers that starts with r, such as rf1BiGeXwwQoi8Z2ueFYTEXSwuJYfV2Jpn.

Addresses leave out characters that are easy to confuse, such as 0 and O, or I and l, and they include a built-in check. A mistyped address is almost never a valid one, so most typos are caught before anything is sent.

There's no sign-up form. An address becomes an account the first time someone sends it enough XRP to cover the reserve, which is called funding the account. Funding it gives the sender no control over it: whoever holds the account's secret key does.

Each account also keeps a sequence number that goes up by one with every transaction it sends. That makes sure its transactions are applied in order, and only once.

Sources

• Accounts (xrpl.org) (checked 2026-10-22)
• Addresses (xrpl.org) (checked 2026-10-22)

General information about how the XRP Ledger works, not financial, legal or tax advice.