Associate and Dissociate Tokens

Before an account can hold a token balance, it must associate with that token. Association provisions a storage slot on the account and increases its ongoing renewal cost, which is why the account itself (not the token admin) must sign.

Accounts with AutoAssociationLimit > 0 can skip this step — the first incoming transfer auto-associates. But explicit association is more predictable and avoids surprise fees.

Associate a single token

// The account's signing key must authorize this.
// Argument order: (account, token) — NOT (token, account).
var receipt = await client.AssociateTokenAsync(account, token);
Console.WriteLine($"Status: {receipt.Status}");

Important

AssociateTokenAsync takes (account, token). Its counterpart DissociateTokenAsync takes (token, account) — the argument order is reversed. This is a known inconsistency in the SDK API.

Associate multiple tokens at once

var receipt = await client.AssociateTokensAsync(new AssociateTokenParams
{
    Account = account,
    Tokens = new[] { token1, token2, token3 }
});

One transaction, one fee — cheaper than three separate associations.

Dissociate

Dissociating removes the token-balance storage slot. The account must hold a zero balance of the token before dissociating; otherwise the network rejects the transaction.

// Argument order: (token, account) — opposite of AssociateTokenAsync.
var receipt = await client.DissociateTokenAsync(token, account);

To return a non-zero balance to the treasury before dissociating, use RelinquishTokenAsync.

Key points