Every XRP Ledger account currently has to lock a 1 XRP reserve before it can go live, so a company opening 100,000 wallets must set aside 100,000 XRP. A code proposal submitted on Oct. 15 aims to remove that barrier with a new transaction called SponsoredAccountCreate.

Under the design, an existing account creates a new one and carries its reserve, so the new wallet can sit at a zero XRP balance. Sponsors could also pay transaction fees for users through the broader Sponsored Fees and Reserves standard, without taking control of their private keys.

The change targets payment apps and AI agents that only need to hold stablecoins such as Ripple's RLUSD. Ripple recently brought Stripe-owned Privy embedded wallets to the ledger, and those wallets still need XRP funding before they can activate.

The underlying sponsorship amendment had 11 validator votes as of Oct. 19, short of the 29 required for mainnet activation. The pull request also remains open, with two unresolved automated review findings.