Bitcoin (BTC 1.27%) and XRP (XRP 1.38%) have posted fairly parallel price charts in 2025. The time-honored "digital gold" is worth $1.74 trillion on the afternoon of Nov. 25, while the cross-border payments coin stops at $132 billion. But both cryptocurrencies are currently within 10% of the year's starting price, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.38%) rose by 16%.
However, they're going in different directions -- XRP is up by 6% in 2025, while Bitcoin fell 7%. Should you forget about Bitcoin in this market and focus your crypto investments on XRP instead?
Image source: Getty Images.
The short answer is "buy Bitcoin, not XRP," but let me explain why
Long story short: Moving your money from Bitcoin to XRP strikes me as a bad move these days. There are a couple of moving parts to this puzzle:
- I expect cryptocurrencies to become more important in my everyday life over time. This journey has barely started, roughly 17 years after the first Bitcoin was created. If you disagree with this, none of the rest will matter. Feel free to explore the best artificial intelligence (AI) stocks to own instead.
- XRP is a first mover in a large, crucial, and promising field. Grabbing just a small percentage of the multitrillion-dollar international payments market would be a wealth-building game changer for its early owners.
- Bitcoin's target market is even larger, since it aims to replace physical gold in some ways and traditional currencies from another perspective. Unless something goes horribly wrong along the way, Bitcoin should multiply in value many times over -- in the long run.
- In this early stage, cryptocurrencies are generally volatile (unless you're talking about stablecoins, of course). Drawdowns and pricing resets have been normal events for both Bitcoin and XRP so far, including a distinct downturn in the last few weeks.
- Here's the kicker: XRP has been wildly overvalued since November 2024. It has calmly traded alongside Bitcoin this year, but at an incredibly inflated price level. The coin is overdue for a price correction in comparison to Bitcoin.
CRYPTO: BTC
Key Data Points
Interest rates are spoiling the crypto party
The general crypto market is down in the last two months, chiefly due to macroeconomic jitters. Nobody hacked Bitcoin, the XRP-powered RippleNet service is humming along as always, and the major crypto-trading exchanges are still in business. It's all about tariffs, job market data, and the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy. Many signs are pointing to slower or perhaps even halted rate cuts in the coming months, driving many investors (large and small) away from risky assets.
Cryptocurrencies still fall in that category, resulting in sharp price cuts. Someday, Bitcoin is supposed to serve as an effective hedge against these types of economy-based market retreats, but that's not the deal so far. Bitcoin's four-year halving cycle suggests a price jump around this point, followed by a crypto winter from mid-2026 to the end of 2028. The ongoing economic shenanigans may have ripped up that pattern, though.
CRYPTO: XRP
Key Data Points
XRP needs a reality check
Whatever Bitcoin does over the next year or two, the leading cryptocurrency should eventually get back on its proverbial feet and start exploring new all-time highs again. It's a genuinely useful monetary tool with many real-world applications, from wealth management to secure money transfers.
I don't even worry a lot about another cryptocurrency stealing Bitcoin's throne with a better technology -- the $1.75 trillion asset has built nearly unbeatable economies of scale at this point. I may disagree with Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) chairman Michael Saylor's lofty price targets, but the original Bitcoin maximalist is leaning in the right direction.
So Bitcoin is a robust long-term buy in my book, and the investment thesis grows stronger as the coin price drops.
At the same time, XRP's current price level was born from a unique moment of speculation last winter. Sure, the long-running Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit is gone, and RippleNet is free to do business in the world's largest economy again, but XRP is still a tiny drop in an ocean of border-crossing payment options.
It will take the Ripple organization years to build the business traction it needs before deserving today's (checks notes) $132 billion market cap. To put that number in context, only 23 financial stocks have a larger market cap on the American market. If XRP were a stock, it would rank ahead of $104 billion Robinhood Markets (HOOD 0.27%) and just below $168 billion BlackRock (BLK +0.69%).
It's hard to even measure XRP's business impact today. It simply isn't ready to rub financial shoulders with these industry giants yet.
I'll take another look if XRP drops back below $1.00 per coin -- a 54% drop from current prices. Until then, you should really consider cashing in some of your XRP gains to double down on Bitcoin instead.
