When it comes to minting new millionaires, crypto investors have their pick of dozens of high-risk, high-upside altcoins.
Two that stand out right now are XRP (XRP +2.06%) and Solana (SOL +4.59%). While both are down in 2025, they have displayed plenty of upside potential in the recent past. And both could become favorites of large institutional investors, thanks to the recent introduction of new spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
So which one of these altcoins -- XRP or Solana -- has the best chance of helping you become a millionaire?
In search of exponential upside potential
For any cryptocurrency to have legitimate millionaire-maker potential, it needs to have the ability to grow exponentially in price over an extended period of time.
Crypto investors typically talk in terms of coins having 10-fold, 100-fold, or even 1,000-fold upside potential. The real millionaire makers, of course, are those that have the most upside potential. A small upfront investment could easily turn into $1 million or more.
Image source: Getty Images.
Take Bitcoin (BTC +2.36%), for example. Twelve years ago, it traded for less than $100. Today, it trades for $87,000. That's the epitome of 1,000-fold upside potential.
Somewhat surprisingly, both XRP and Solana have shown the ability to keep pace with Bitcoin. During the most recent five-year period, Bitcoin has delivered returns of 202%. Solana is up an impressive 261%. And XRP is up a respectable 176%.
Bitcoin / U.S. dollar chart by TradingView.
Solana's performance is especially noteworthy, given how far it fell in 2022 during the crypto winter. It lost more than 90% of its value, and at one point, looked like it was headed to zero. But in 2023, it exploded in value by more than 900%. So, just like Bitcoin, it is prone to intense cycles of boom and bust.
Future growth prospects
Another clue to the millionaire-maker potential of any cryptocurrency comes from the long-term price targets set by Wall Street analysts. While these price targets tend to be overly bullish, they can provide a good sense of where a cryptocurrency is headed over the long haul.
The good news is that both XRP and Solana have no shortage of ultra-bullish long-term price targets. For example, Standard Chartered thinks the price of XRP is going to $12.50 by the end of 2028 from less than $2 today. And it thinks the price of Solana is going to hit $500 by 2029 from about $125 today. Based on today's prices, that's roughly a sixfold return for XRP investors and a fourfold return for Solana investors.
CRYPTO: SOL
Key Data Points
But there's an even more bullish price target for Solana that has my attention. Back in 2023, investment firm VanEck set an ultra-bullish price target of $3,211 for Solana for 2030. It was based on the prediction that Solana -- as one of the largest Layer-1 blockchain networks in the world -- would continue to gain market share from archrival Ethereum (ETH +3.74%) in key areas such as decentralized finance (DeFi).
And, by and large, that prediction is now coming true. Solana has emerged as a legitimate threat to Ethereum. In fact, in terms of 24-hour trading volume on its decentralized exchanges, Solana has now surpassed Ethereum. Moreover, Solana now ranks second in terms of total value locked (TVL), which is a key indicator of overall DeFi strength.
By way of comparison, XRP's appeal is much more limited. It ranks 48th in terms of TVL. That's because it has never really broadened its reach beyond being a bridge currency for cross-border payments. Value may move through the XRP blockchain, but it doesn't stay there. And now stablecoins, which are digital currencies pegged 1-to-1 to the dollar, have emerged as a potentially superior way to move money across international borders.
Solana could be a millionaire maker
When taking into account both past price performance and long-term growth prospects, Solana appears to be the superior pick. That's because it has exactly the types of characteristics that investors expect from a millionaire-maker cryptocurrency.
Chief among these is the ability to deliver exponential growth. Solana has already shown signs of this in 2023 and in 2024. If it can string along enough of these years in a row, it might enable your investment to grow by a factor of 10 or even 25 over time. That, in turn, could put you well on the path to millionaire status.
But just keep in mind: Investing in Solana is not for the faint of heart. Remember that in 2022, it lost 94% of its value, wiping out many investors. So before you invest in this high-risk, high-reward cryptocurrency, make sure you do your due diligence.
