Proposed upgrade: • Banks will be able to pay XRP transaction fees on behalf of users. • Currently, all XRP Ledger accounts must lock up a minimum of 1 XRP. • The change requires sustained support from over 80% of validators for two weeks. • For banks to use the XRP Ledger, they must hold and lock up their own XRP. • This imposes accounting and regulatory burdens on banks. • Particularly, banks are often regulationally cautious about directly holding cryptocurrencies. This upgrade enables banks to use the Ledger without holding XRP. It is a strategic design change aimed at lowering barriers to entry for banks and increasing user adoption. The structure pushes XRP into a layer invisible to users. Users experience only the act of sending funds through their bank’s app, unaware that XRP is moving behind the scenes. This is a strategy for adoption—and simultaneously a structure that dilutes XRP’s identity as a currency.