How a payment happens · Lesson 2 of 4

The tiny cost that gets destroyed

Every transaction destroys a tiny amount of XRP, and nobody receives it.

Every transaction must destroy a small amount of XRP, called the transaction cost. It isn't paid to anyone: not to validators, not to any company. It's simply gone.

The cost is there to protect the network. For an ordinary payment it's a tiny fraction of one XRP, but it rises automatically when the network is busy, so flooding the network with transactions quickly becomes very expensive.

Some transactions cost more than others. One approved by several signers, for example, costs more for each signature it carries.

If a transaction offers too little, a server may hold it back for a later ledger version, or ignore it altogether.

Sources

• Transaction Cost (xrpl.org) (checked 2026-10-22)

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