XRP has struggled to regain its previous bull-market peak, even as Bitcoin, Ether and several other major cryptocurrencies have surpassed their earlier highs and generated significant returns for long-term investors.
Although holding digital assets for extended periods is often promoted as a wealth-building strategy, XRP’s performance shows that not every cryptocurrency has delivered comparable results.
The payments-focused token, which operates on the XRP Ledger, is currently the world’s fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Despite its position among the leading digital assets, XRP remains well below its record from the 2017–2018 market cycle.
XRP is trading near $1.33, approximately 62.5% below its early January 2018 peak of $3.55. Investors who bought at that high and continued holding for almost nine years would still be facing a substantial loss. The token briefly exceeded its previous record in July 2025, reaching $3.66 before experiencing another significant decline.
Other cryptocurrencies have performed much better relative to their previous cycle peaks. Bitcoin has risen 314% from its December 2017 high of $19,804, while Dogecoin has gained 322% from its January 2018 peak. BNB has increased approximately 2,800%, Ether has advanced 66%, and Zcash (ZEC) has climbed 38%. Tron remains around 4% below its previous high, while Solana launched in 2020 and therefore has no comparable peak from the 2017–2018 cycle.
Bitcoin, Ether and several other major tokens have also declined sharply from their 2025 highs. However, their current prices remain considerably above their levels during the previous major cryptocurrency bull market.
Expanding Supply Has Weighed on XRP’s Price
Analysts point to the increase in XRP’s circulating supply as one of the main factors behind its weak long-term price performance.
Nicolai Sondergaard, senior research analyst at Nansen, told CoinDesk that XRP’s circulating supply expanded by 63%, increasing from 38.7 billion tokens in 2017 to 63.1 billion. Over the same period, the token’s total market capitalization declined by only around 3%.
Circulating supply refers to the number of tokens available in the market. As more coins enter circulation, each token represents a smaller proportion of the cryptocurrency’s overall value. Unless demand increases sufficiently to absorb the additional supply, this can limit price appreciation.
Oliver Carding, head of marketing at Tesseract Group, said XRP’s performance appears stronger when measured by total market capitalization rather than its price per token.
Carding argued that XRP’s overall value has recovered, but the larger circulating supply changes the comparison. With roughly 63% more tokens available than at the previous peak, matching the earlier circulating market capitalization would translate into a price approximately 39% lower.
Tesseract Group is an institutional digital asset management firm overseeing more than $500 million in assets.
XRP ETF Inflows Trail Bitcoin and Ether
The launch of cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds in the United States has created another route for institutional investors to gain exposure to digital assets. Bitcoin and Ether funds have attracted billions of dollars, whereas XRP investment products have gathered considerably less capital.
Paul Howard, senior director at market-making firm Wincent, said demand for XRP ETFs has been relatively subdued compared with funds linked to Bitcoin and Ether.
Data from SoSoValue shows that XRP funds have accumulated approximately $1.80 billion in net inflows since launching nearly a year ago. Bitcoin ETFs, by contrast, can receive more than $1 billion in inflows within a single trading day.
Trading activity across XRP markets has also weakened. Nansen data indicates that spot trading volume has fallen 53.5%, perpetual futures volume has declined 44%, and active addresses have decreased 10.7%.
These figures point to reduced market participation and weaker trading momentum, factors that may limit XRP’s ability to sustain a stronger price recovery.
Ripple’s Business Strategy Focuses on Payments
Ripple’s priorities may also help explain why XRP has not matched the performance of some competing tokens. The company closely associated with the cryptocurrency has concentrated on cross-border payments, payment infrastructure, its RLUSD stablecoin and trade-financing products rather than pursuing every rapidly growing segment of the digital asset industry.
Decentralized finance, artificial intelligence-related projects and memecoins have attracted significant investor interest and capital, while some blockchain ecosystems have developed deeper connections with traditional financial markets.
Howard told CoinDesk that Ripple has spent considerable effort building payment infrastructure, expanding RLUSD and developing trade-financing solutions around the XRP Ledger. In his view, this has broadened the company’s focus beyond XRP itself.
Investment opportunities have also expanded across the wider crypto market. Howard said decentralized finance has become a significant part of the investment narrative surrounding Ether, Solana and Hyperliquid’s HYPE token, while XRP has not placed the same emphasis on that sector.
Regulatory Uncertainty Held XRP Back
Ripple’s lengthy legal battle with U.S. regulators represents another factor that may have affected XRP’s market performance.
In December 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple and two of its executives, alleging that the company 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 institutional sales did. Ripple was ordered to pay a $125 million penalty in 2024. The dispute came to an end in August 2025, when both sides dropped their appeals.
Carding said the prolonged legal uncertainty helps explain why XRP failed to reclaim its 2018 high during the 2021 cryptocurrency bull market. Coinbase’s suspension of XRP trading during the dispute also affected its market environment.
He noted that the appeals were dropped in August 2025, when XRP was trading above $3. Since then, the token has declined approximately 59%, compared with a 32% drop for Bitcoin and a 44% decline for Ether. XRP’s circulating market capitalization has also fallen by around 56% over that period.
The comparison suggests that resolving the legal dispute did not, by itself, produce sustained price strength for XRP.
Other Major Cryptocurrencies Have Also Fallen Short
XRP is not the only digital asset that remains below its early 2018 price levels. Carding noted that six of the other nine cryptocurrencies that occupied the top 10 in January 2018 are trading even further below their prices from that period.
For investors assessing XRP’s future prospects, Carding recommends watching its performance relative to Bitcoin, monthly token distributions following Ripple’s escrow releases and changes in investment fund holdings.
The relationship between supply and demand is particularly important. If XRP continues to underperform Bitcoin even as the number of newly distributed tokens decreases, it could indicate that buying interest is too weak to absorb the available supply.
XRP’s future performance will depend on several interconnected factors, including its circulating supply, institutional investment flows, broader market demand and the ability of the XRP Ledger ecosystem to attract capital and generate sustained usage. Its role in cross-border payments alone may not be enough to close the performance gap with Bitcoin and Ether.
