Originally published on xroot.dev.
Every account on Solana carries a refundable SOL deposit — and the network just cut the price of that deposit by 90%.
SIMD-0437, shipping with Agave 4.2, is being covered as "Solana gets cheaper". That is true, and it matters for anyone creating accounts at scale. But the more interesting consequence runs the other way: because the change is strictly a relaxation, every account funded at the old rate keeps every lamport it was funded with. The SOL already locked across millions of forgotten token accounts just became a fixed, non-replenishing inventory — worth ten times more per account than anything created after activation.
Here is what rent actually is, exactly what SIMD-0437 changes, and what the cut means for reclaims, airdrops, ZK compression, and mint costs — verified against the proposal text rather than the headlines.
Rent Is a Refundable Deposit, Not a Fee
