Why XRP Has Failed to Deliver the Wealth Gains Seen in Bitcoin and Ether

XRP continues to trade below its peak from the 2017–2018 crypto bull market, while Bitcoin, Ether and several other major cryptocurrencies have climbed well beyond their previous highs, generating substantial gains for long-term holders.

Holding cryptocurrencies over an extended period is often considered an effective strategy for building wealth. However, XRP demonstrates that this approach has not delivered the same results for every digital asset.

XRP, the payments-oriented cryptocurrency native to the XRP Ledger, ranks as the world’s fifth-largest digital asset by market capitalization. Despite its prominent position in the industry, the token has struggled to match the long-term price performance of several major competitors.

XRP currently trades near $1.33, approximately 62.5% below its early January 2018 peak of $3.55. Investors who purchased the token around that high and continued holding it for nearly nine years would still be sitting on a substantial loss. XRP briefly surpassed its previous record in July 2025, reaching $3.66, before suffering another sharp decline.

Other major cryptocurrencies have delivered considerably stronger returns from their previous cycle highs. Bitcoin has gained 314% from its December 2017 peak of $19,804. Dogecoin is up 322% from its January 2018 high, while BNB has climbed approximately 2,800%. Ether has advanced 66%, and Zcash (ZEC) has gained 38%. Tron remains slightly below its previous peak, trading around 4% lower. Solana entered the market in 2020 and therefore has no comparable 2017–2018 high.

Although Bitcoin, Ether and numerous other tokens have retreated substantially from their 2025 highs, their prices remain well above their levels during the previous major crypto cycle.

XRP’s Expanding Supply Has Diluted Per-Token Value

Market analysts identify XRP’s growing circulating supply as one of the main reasons its price has struggled to recover its former peak.

Nicolai Sondergaard, senior research analyst at analytics firm Nansen, told CoinDesk that XRP’s circulating supply increased by 63%, from 38.7 billion tokens in 2017 to 63.1 billion. During the same period, XRP’s overall market capitalization declined by only around 3%.

A cryptocurrency’s circulating supply represents the number of tokens currently available in the market. When that supply increases, each individual token represents a smaller portion of the asset’s total market value, potentially limiting price growth if demand does not rise proportionately.

Oliver Carding, head of marketing at Tesseract Group, argued that XRP’s performance looks more favorable when assessed through its total market capitalization rather than its individual token price.

Carding said XRP had recovered in terms of overall market value. However, because approximately 63% more tokens are now circulating than at the previous peak, maintaining the same circulating market capitalization would imply a price roughly 39% lower.

Tesseract Group is an institutional digital asset management company with more than $500 million in assets under management.

Institutional Demand for XRP Remains Relatively Weak

The introduction of U.S.-listed cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds has made it easier for institutional investors to gain exposure to digital assets. While Bitcoin and Ether ETFs have attracted billions of dollars, investment flows into XRP funds have been comparatively limited.

Paul Howard, senior director at market-making firm Wincent, said XRP’s ETF adoption has remained muted relative to Bitcoin and Ether.

According to data provider SoSoValue, XRP investment funds have attracted approximately $1.80 billion in cumulative inflows since launching nearly a year ago. By comparison, Bitcoin ETFs can attract more than $1 billion in a single trading day.

Nansen’s data also points to weaker trading activity across the XRP market. Spot trading volume has declined 53.5%, perpetual futures volume has fallen 44%, and the number of active addresses has decreased by 10.7%.

These figures suggest that XRP has struggled to maintain trading momentum and investor participation compared with periods of stronger market demand.

Ripple’s Strategy Places Emphasis on Payments

Another factor influencing XRP’s performance is Ripple’s business strategy. The company closely associated with the token has focused on developing cross-border payment infrastructure rather than concentrating primarily on sectors such as decentralized finance, artificial intelligence and memecoins.

Those other segments have attracted significant capital flows and developed deeper connections with traditional financial markets.

Howard told CoinDesk that Ripple has devoted substantial resources to payment infrastructure, its RLUSD stablecoin and trade-financing products built around the XRP Ledger. He suggested that these initiatives have shifted some attention away from XRP itself.

Investors also have a wider selection of cryptocurrency investment opportunities than they did during the previous market cycle.

Howard noted that decentralized finance has become an important investment narrative for assets such as Ether, Solana and Hyperliquid’s HYPE token, while XRP has not focused on that particular area to the same extent.

SEC Lawsuit Added Years of Regulatory Uncertainty

Ripple’s prolonged legal dispute with U.S. regulators also weighed on XRP’s market performance.

In December 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple and two of its executives, alleging that the company had raised approximately $1.3 billion through XRP sales that should have been registered as securities offerings.

A federal judge ruled in 2023 that XRP sales on public exchanges did not constitute securities offerings, while certain sales to institutional investors did. In 2024, Ripple was ordered to pay a $125 million penalty. The dispute concluded in August 2025, when both sides abandoned their appeals.

Carding said the extended legal uncertainty helps explain why XRP failed to revisit its previous high during the 2021 cryptocurrency bull market, particularly after Coinbase suspended trading in the token.

He noted that the appeals were dropped in August 2025 when XRP was trading above $3. Since then, XRP has fallen approximately 59%, compared with declines of 32% for Bitcoin and 44% for Ether. XRP’s circulating market capitalization has also dropped around 56% over the same period.

The figures illustrate how XRP has underperformed several major cryptocurrencies even after the regulatory dispute reached its conclusion.

XRP Is Not the Only Cryptocurrency Below Its Previous Peak

XRP is not the only digital asset that has struggled to recover its early 2018 price levels. Carding pointed out that six of the other nine cryptocurrencies in the top 10 during January 2018 are trading even further below their prices from that period.

For investors monitoring XRP’s future performance, Carding recommended examining the token’s price relative to Bitcoin, alongside changes in monthly token distributions following Ripple’s escrow releases and movements in investment fund holdings.

In particular, investors can monitor whether XRP continues to underperform Bitcoin even as the number of newly distributed tokens declines. If supply growth slows but XRP’s relative performance remains weak, that could indicate that demand for the token is not strong enough to absorb the available supply.

Ultimately, XRP’s long-term performance will depend on more than its role in cross-border payments. Its circulating supply, institutional investment flows, broader market demand and ability to attract capital into its ecosystem will all influence whether it can close the performance gap with Bitcoin and Ether.

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