Coach JV Explains What It Costs to Own XRP Forever

Coach JV explains why he considers XRP’s long-term ownership costs when comparing crypto with homes and cars, including XRPL reserves and transaction fees.

Financial educator Coach JV says one reason he continues to buy XRP is that simply holding the cryptocurrency does not require recurring payments such as property taxes, vehicle registration fees, or monthly debt obligations.

Pay off your car: you still pay every year to register it.

Pay off your home: you still pay property taxes every year.

The debt can disappear. The obligation doesn’t.

That’s one reason I buy Bitcoin and XRP.

My homes and cars have ongoing costs simply to own and maintain…

— Coach, JV (@Coachjv_) September 27, 2026

His argument focuses on the long-term cost of ownership rather than the initial purchase price.

Coach JV, who has roughly 293,000 followers on X, compared XRP and Bitcoin with traditional assets such as homes and cars.

He noted that paying off a mortgage or vehicle loan removes the debt, but other ownership expenses can remain.

His central question was straightforward: investors should consider not only what an asset costs to acquire, but also what it costs to continue owning indefinitely.

What Does It Actually Cost to Hold XRP?

At the protocol level, the XRP Ledger does not impose an annual holding fee on XRP simply because an investor keeps the asset in a wallet.

However, direct self-custody on XRPL is not completely cost-free.

The network currently requires a 1 XRP base reserve for an XRP Ledger account. This is XRP that must remain reserved while the account exists rather than an annual charge paid each year. The requirement can change through the XRP Ledger’s validator fee-voting process.

Transactions also carry a small network cost. The standard minimum transaction fee is currently 10 drops, or 0.00001 XRP, and the XRP used for the fee is permanently destroyed.

A holder who simply leaves XRP untouched does not repeatedly pay this transaction fee; it applies when transactions are submitted.

This means the XRP Ledger itself does not charge recurring property-tax-style or registration-style fees merely for continuing to hold XRP.

Custody and Security Can Still Carry Costs

Coach JV also acknowledged that crypto ownership is not free of risk.

Self-custody requires holders to secure their private keys and recovery information. Investors may separately choose to purchase hardware wallets, use paid custody providers, or keep XRP on exchanges that operate under their own fee structures.

These are custody or service expenses rather than recurring XRP Ledger ownership charges.

XRPL documentation also notes that customers holding XRP inside exchange-managed accounts generally do not maintain their own individual 1 XRP ledger reserve because exchanges typically pool customer assets across shared accounts.

The distinction adds context to Coach JV’s ownership argument. Buying XRP has a market price, self-custody requires a reserve, moving XRP incurs transaction fees, and security may create optional expenses—but XRPL does not impose an annual fee simply for continuing to own the token.

XRP Can Be Cheaper to Hold Than Homes and Cars

From Coach JV’s perspective, XRP can be cheaper to hold over the long term than assets such as cars or homes because simply owning XRP does not create recurring costs like property taxes, registration fees, or required monthly payments.

Even after a car or home is fully paid off, owners can still face taxes, registration, insurance, maintenance, and other ongoing expenses. By comparison, XRP itself does not carry an annual ownership charge just for remaining in a wallet, although custody, security, and transaction costs can still apply.

This is the basis of JV’s argument that investors should consider the lifetime cost of ownership, not just the price paid to acquire an asset.