Every empty token account
keeps a little SOL
asleep inside it.

Why a token account holds SOL

On Solana, every account must hold enough lamports to be rent-exempt — a deposit proportional to the bytes it occupies. A standard SPL token account is 165 bytes; Token-2022 accounts can be larger because of extensions. The deposit isn't a fee: it stays in the account for as long as the account exists. DustSweep shows the live minimum from the network at the top of this page, and each account's actual balance in the results. Accounts opened when the minimum was higher still hold the larger amount they were funded with.

Empty is not the same as closed

Selling or sending your entire balance leaves the account at zero tokens, but it still exists and still holds its deposit. Only a CloseAccount instruction, signed by the account's owner (or its close authority), deletes it and sends the lamports to a destination address. Most wallets don't do this automatically because the next time you receive that token, the account would need to be opened — and paid for — again.

Dust needs one more step

A token account can only be closed when its balance is zero. For dust — a tiny balance worth almost nothing — you first burn the remaining tokens (or send them somewhere), then close. Burning is irreversible, so only do it for tokens you're certain are worthless to you. Never burn something just because DustSweep couldn't price it: unpriced tokens include brand-new tokens and some NFTs.

Things that block closing

A frozen account (the token's freeze authority has frozen it) can't be closed or burned until it's thawed. Token-2022 accounts holding withheld transfer fees must have those fees harvested first. Wrapped SOL accounts are special: closing one unwraps it and returns both the wrapped SOL and the deposit.

Doing it yourself, safely

Many wallets now offer a built-in "close empty accounts" or "reclaim rent" feature — that's the simplest path, because you sign inside software you already trust. With the Solana CLI, spl-token close --address <ACCOUNT> closes one account and spl-token gc cleans up empty associated accounts for the configured wallet. Check spl-token --help for your version's Token-2022 options. Whatever you use: no legitimate tool ever needs your seed phrase, and sites that promise to "claim your SOL" are a common phishing pattern.