Quick answer: A stroop is the smallest unit of value on the Stellar network. One stroop equals one ten-millionth of a lumen, written as 0.0000001 XLM, so 10 million stroops make up a single XLM. Stellar tracks all amounts in stroops because the ledger supports seven decimal places of precision, and the network minimum transaction fee is set in stroops (100 stroops per operation).
Updated 07/17/2026. By Jake Claver. Educational content, not investment advice.
If you have read a Stellar developer guide or inspected a raw transaction, you have probably seen amounts expressed in stroops rather than whole lumens. The stroop is not a separate token. It is the base accounting unit the protocol uses under the hood, the same way a cent is a fraction of a dollar. Understanding it clears up how fees, balances, and payment precision actually work on Stellar.
Stellar itself describes its network as a layer-1, open-source, decentralized, peer-to-peer blockchain built for payments, asset tokenization, and on-chain finance. The Stellar developer portal is where most of the primitives below are documented for people building on it.
What a stroop is
According to the Stellar concepts documentation, “A ‘stroop’ is the smallest amount unit. It is one ten-millionth: 1/10000000 or 0.0000001.” Every asset amount on Stellar, including the native lumen (XLM), is represented internally as an integer number of stroops rather than a decimal. That integer approach avoids the rounding errors that floating-point math can introduce when handling money.
Because one lumen is 10 million stroops, Stellar can express fractions of a cent cleanly. The seven-decimal precision matters most for high-volume payments and for assets whose value per unit is small, where every fractional digit counts. The full write-up lives in the Stellar assets documentation.
Where the name comes from
The term is not a technical acronym. The Stellar documentation notes that the word is “derived from Stroopy, the name of the Stellar mascot,” and that Stroopy in turn is named after the stroopwafel, the thin Dutch caramel-filled waffle cookie. It is a deliberately friendly name for a very small number, and it stuck as the community-standard way to talk about sub-lumen amounts.
How stroops set transaction fees
Stellar charges a small fee on every transaction to prevent ledger spam, and that fee is denominated in stroops. Per the Stellar fees documentation, the network minimum “cannot be lower than 100 stroops per operation.” A transaction’s inclusion fee equals the number of operations it contains multiplied by the effective base fee for that ledger.
In practice, 100 stroops is 0.00001 XLM, a fraction of a cent at typical prices. The fee is charged per operation, not per transaction, so a transaction bundling several operations pays proportionally more. During periods of congestion, Stellar uses surge pricing: submitters can bid a higher fee, but they typically pay only the minimum needed for inclusion in the ledger rather than their maximum bid. The full mechanics are in the fees, resource limits, and metering reference.
Stroops, lumens, and minimum balances
Lumens do more than pay fees. The Stellar lumens documentation explains that XLM is the only token that needs no issuer or trustline, and that it also funds smart-contract rent and minimum account balances.
- One base reserve is currently 0.5 XLM.
- Every account must hold at least two base reserves, currently 1 XLM.
- Each additional subentry (a trustline, offer, signer, or data entry) raises the minimum by another 0.5 XLM.
These reserves are expressed in whole and fractional lumens, but the ledger still records them down to the stroop. That is the practical link between the human-readable balance you see in a wallet and the integer arithmetic the protocol runs.
Why this matters
For anyone building on or auditing Stellar, the stroop is the unit that makes amounts unambiguous. When you read a raw operation, a fee bid, or a smart-contract balance, it is often stated in stroops, and converting is straightforward once you know the factor is 10 million. It also explains why Stellar can quote average transaction costs measured in small fractions of a cent: the fee floor is just 100 of these tiny units per operation.
The technology story here is about precision and predictable, low fees. That is separate from any view on XLM as an asset. Nothing above is a forecast or a reason to buy or sell anything. If you build on Stellar, the primary sources are the Stellar developer docs, which stay current as the network evolves.
Common questions
How many stroops are in one XLM?
There are 10 million stroops in one lumen. A stroop is one ten-millionth of a lumen, or 0.0000001 XLM, which is why Stellar supports seven decimal places of precision.
What is a stroop used for?
A stroop is the base accounting unit for all amounts on Stellar. It is used to record asset balances precisely and to set transaction fees, where the network minimum is 100 stroops per operation.
Where does the word stroop come from?
The Stellar documentation says the term comes from Stroopy, the Stellar mascot, whose name is derived from the stroopwafel, a Dutch caramel-filled waffle cookie. It is a nickname for the network’s smallest unit, not a technical acronym.
What is the minimum Stellar transaction fee?
The network minimum is 100 stroops per operation, which is 0.00001 XLM. The total inclusion fee is the number of operations multiplied by the effective base fee for that ledger, and it can rise above the minimum during surge pricing.
Is a stroop a separate token from XLM?
No. A stroop is not a token you can hold or trade on its own. It is simply the smallest denomination of a lumen (XLM), the way a cent is a fraction of a dollar.
This content is educational only. It is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Check primary sources and speak with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.
