XRP reached an intraday high of $2.895 on Wednesday and is currently trading at $2.87 per unit, representing a nearly 12% increase in the past 24 hours. It is gradually closing the gap with Ethereum (ETH) and now accounts for 42.6% of Ethereum’s market capitalization.
The dominance of Ethereum is being threatened as XRP gains ground. In recent years, there have been discussions in the crypto community about the possibility of Ethereum surpassing Bitcoin or Solana overtaking Ethereum. However, neither of these scenarios has materialized. On the other hand, XRP seems to be making progress in challenging the position of Ethereum.
Currently priced at $2.87 with a market capitalization of $164 billion, XRP is still behind Ethereum, which has a valuation of $385 billion. XRP accounts for 42.6% of Ethereum’s market cap, so it would need to increase by $221 billion to surpass Ethereum. There are currently 57,493,120,449 XRP in circulation, and the digital asset is trading around 18% below its all-time high.
XRP reached its peak price on January 7, 2017, nearly seven years ago, when each coin was valued at $3.40. However, even at that price, XRP would fall short of overtaking Ethereum. Assuming Ethereum’s price and supply remain constant, and XRP’s supply stays unchanged, XRP would need to rise by 133.5% against the U.S. dollar to claim the top spot, which would put its price at an estimated $6.70 per coin.
It is worth noting that XRP once held the title of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap before Tether (USDT) and Ethereum surpassed it. In August 2013, XRP ranked third with a valuation of $47.71 million. By September 22, 2013, it had climbed to the second position with a market cap of $100.59 million. However, Litecoin (LTC) overtook XRP by the end of 2013 and held the second-place position well into 2014. It wasn’t until October 2014 that XRP reclaimed its second-place ranking with a market cap of $138.81 million when trading at $0.004789 per coin. Since the rise of Ethereum and the subsequent bull run in 2016-2017, XRP has not been able to regain its second-place position. In its early existence, XRP remained valued at less than a penny.
The steady progress of XRP towards Ethereum’s market cap indicates its growing potential, but challenges still remain. While surpassing Ethereum’s valuation may require significant growth, the ongoing momentum of XRP suggests that the competition at the top could intensify. As the crypto market continues to evolve, the positioning of XRP is likely to generate considerable interest among investors and analysts alike.
