XRP Destination Tag: What Happens If You Forget It
Katz5 Min | , 
A destination tag is a number that tells an exchange whose XRP just arrived. You need it when you send XRP to an exchange. You don’t need it when you send to your own wallet or a friend’s wallet outside an exchange.
Forgot the tag? Don’t panic. Often the network refuses the payment and the XRP never leaves your wallet. In the other case the XRP sits at the exchange, and its support team can send it back to you.
What a destination tag is
An exchange keeps one XRP address for thousands of customers. The tag is your customer number at that address: the exchange sees it on every deposit and credits the XRP to you. It’s only digits, anything from 0 to 4,294,967,295.
The tag is not a password. Every XRP Ledger transaction is public, tags included, so there’s no harm in someone seeing it.
When you need a tag
| Where you send XRP | Tag needed? |
|---|---|
| An exchange, like Coinbase, Kraken or Binance | Yes, the one on your deposit page |
| A payment service that shows you a tag | Yes |
| Your own wallet: Katz Wallet, Xaman, a hardware wallet | No |
| A friend’s personal wallet | No |
Some exchanges call the tag a memo or simply “tag”. It’s the same number, and it goes into the destination tag field of your wallet.
What happens if you send without it
- The exchange requires tags. Many exchanges switch on a setting that makes the network reject any payment to them without a tag. Your wallet shows a failed transaction, the XRP stays with you, and you lose only the tiny network fee. Send again, this time with the tag.
- The exchange doesn’t require tags. The payment goes through and the XRP lands at the exchange’s shared address. Nothing is lost, but the exchange doesn’t know it’s yours, so only its support team can credit it.
Check your wallet’s history first. A failed payment means the first case, and you can simply try again.
How to get your XRP back from an exchange
- Find the transaction hash. It’s in your wallet’s history. Or search your address on an XRP Ledger explorer: XRPScan or Bithomp.
- Write to the exchange’s support. Choose the topic about a deposit without a tag or memo. Give the hash, the amount, your sending address and the time you sent it.
- Wait, and don’t send again. These deposits are credited by hand. How long it takes, and whether there’s a fee, depends on the exchange.
A wrong tag is worse than no tag
The network has no way to know which tags belong to real customers, so a mistyped number goes through. The XRP may get credited to someone else, or to nobody. Write to support right away, with the same details as above.
How not to lose XRP this way
- Copy the address and the tag from the exchange’s deposit page every time, not from an old message.
- Send a small amount first and wait until the exchange shows it.
- Before you confirm, compare the tag digit by digit.
- Some exchanges give an X-address, which starts with an X and already contains the tag. If your wallet accepts it, there’s no separate tag to forget.
Withdraw your XRP to Katz Wallet
Move your XRP from the exchange to your own Katz Wallet. It needs no tag, and only you hold the key. Start with a small amount.