Solana begins to phase down token account storage costs by 90%

Solana's core development team Anza announced that the first of five function gates has been officially launched, a development that will reduce on-chain storage costs by 90%.

This change will mainly benefit stablecoins and payments businesses, which have become one of the fastest-growing use cases for Solana networks. For developers who need to create a large number of token accounts and the users they guide, the change brings a lower fixed capital cost-a cost that has remained the same over the years.

Timing is crucial. Over the past year, Solana has focused on establishing itself as a settlement track, not just a speculative tool. However, rent remains one of the obstacles to its stated goal of large-scale account creation. Lower account costs make it more feasible for fintech companies and wallets to pay deposits for their users.

Solana launches a phased cost reduction plan for token accounts

Proposal SIMD-0437 written by Igor Durovic of the Anza team is responsible for the reform. It reduces a constant called lamports_per_byte from 6,960 to 696, which determines the minimum balance the account must maintain.

As stated on the Solana Foundation upgrade page, this constant was established many years ago and has not changed since. The storage price does not reflect the actual storage costs borne by the verifier, but automatically increases as the value of SOL increases.

The reduction phase will be carried out in five doors: first from 6,960 to 6,333, then from 6,333 to 5,080, then to 2,575, 1,322, and finally to 696. Test net activation starts at the first gate, with a reduction of approximately 9%.

Subsequent doors will be activated individually based on the status growth information provided by the core development team.

Importance of deposit calculation to payment business

Solana's rent is not an expense. The foundation describes it as a fully refundable deposit that is returned when the account is closed. SIMD-0437 changes the amount of this upfront deposit.

Previously, the rent-free amount required to be deposited in standard SPL token accounts was approximately US$0.159, but after all five doors are launched, this amount will be reduced to US$0.0159, which is only one-tenth of the original amount.

On a larger scale, the cost savings will become significant. According to the foundation's estimates, if a payment company needed to open a million token accounts, it would currently cost $159,000, compared with just $15,900 after the entire reduction was completed. This amount may determine whether a business can afford the cost of creating accounts for a large number of users.

Solana's payments increased by 755.3% in 2025, establishing the network as a settlement layer for stablecoins issued by brands such as Western Union, PayPal and Fiserv. The reduction in rental deposits directly drives this development because it reduces the cost of joining the chain for each new paying user.

Safeguards against state inflation

The phased approach aims to reduce the risk of a drop in storage costs causing a proliferation of states on the chain that each verifier must store and index. If something goes wrong, the sixth function gate can restore the constant to 6,960. Supporting proposal SIMD-0392 also allows rent increases again in the future without affecting existing accounts.

The cut is supported by analysis released by Umberto Natale, a data researcher at the Solana Foundation. His model found that even after a tenfold reduction, state inflation attacks aimed at exhausting current storage still required approximately $17.2 million in lock-in capital. He concluded that a 90% cut would not pose a systemic risk to clusters.

Next step deployment plan

Rent cuts were released with Agave version 4.2, and Anza's verifier version is recommended for use on the main network in August 2026. This version also includes larger 4,096-byte transactions and halving the block time to 200 milliseconds.

According to the foundation, activation of the main network feature for this version has begun in the week of August 17, 2025. Existing accounts will continue to function normally without changes, just reduce the balance to the new minimum requirement.

The next milestone is clear: Before Solana achieves a 90% across-the-board rent cut, each of the remaining four doors must pass its risk review. The 90% reduction refers to the result after deployment is fully completed, not an immediate 90% reduction. Each function door is independent, allowing Solana developers to monitor status growth before moving on to the next phase of cuts. The foundation also described a sixth back-off gate that can restore the original value of 6,960 if something goes wrong.

Reduction data at each stage

Current: 6,960 slices_per_byte, cumulative reduction of 0%

Step 1: 6,333, cumulative reduction of 9.0%

Step 2: 5,080, cumulative reduction of 27.0%

Step 3: 2,575, cumulative reduction of 63.0%

Step 4: 1,322, cumulative reduction of 81.0%

Step 5:696, cumulative reduction of 90.0%

SIMD-0437 reduces lamports_per_byte from 6,960 to 696 through five independent gating steps. The Solana Foundation's own example shows that the cost per standard SPL token account dropped from $0.159 to a fully reduced $0.0159. For 1 million accounts, this means a drop from $159,000 to $15,900.

Comparison of account size and cost

1 account: US$0.159 before reduction, US$0.0159 after 90% reduction, US$0.1431 in capital savings

1 million accounts: $159,000 before cut,$15,900 after 90% cut, and $143,100 in capital savings

The picture shows the cost comparison of Solana's rental deposit before and after SIMD-0437 fully implemented the 90% reduction. The data is based on standard SPL token accounts and financial models published by the Solana Foundation. This is a refundable rent-free deposit and not a transaction fee. SOL is locked for the duration of the account and can be withdrawn when the account is closed.