XRP (XRP 1.06%) and Dogecoin (DOGE +0.81%), both launched in 2013, have turned some of their earliest investors into millionaires. A $10,000 investment in XRP's earliest trade would be worth $3.57 million today, while the same investment in Dogecoin's debut could have grown to about $7 million. However, those investors would have needed to hold their tokens through three crypto winters and one major U.S. recession to experience those gains.
Both tokens also lost their luster over the past 12 months, as XRP declined almost 10% and Dogecoin sank nearly 60%. Let's see why these two altcoins stumbled -- and if either one can generate even more millionaire-making gains over the next decade.
Image source: Getty Images.
The differences between XRP and Dogecoin
XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger, was created by the founders of the fintech company Ripple Labs. Its creators pre-minted its entire supply of 100 billion tokens before its launch, so it can't be actively mined like Bitcoin (BTC 0.60%) or staked like Ethereum (ETH 0.40%).
XRP is primarily used as a bridge currency to accelerate financial transactions on Ripple's platform. If a user wants to make a financial transaction across two fiat currencies, they're both instantly converted to XRP (as the "bridge") and back to the target currency. That approach is cheaper, faster, and arguably more secure than traditional interbank SWIFT transfers.
CRYPTO: XRP
Key Data Points
Dogecoin was created from the open-source code for Litecoin (LTC 0.95%), which was forked (split off) from Bitcoin's (BTC 0.60%) blockchain. Like Litecoin and Bitcoin, Dogecoin can still be actively mined with the energy-intensive (PoW) consensus mechanism.
Yet unlike those two other tokens, which have supply caps, Dogecoin doesn't have a maximum supply and has 168 billion tokens in circulation. Its supporters believe that design will encourage more people to spend their Dogecoins instead of hoarding them.
CRYPTO: DOGE
Key Data Points
Neither the XRP Ledger nor Dogecoin's blockchain natively supports smart contracts, which are used to develop decentralized apps (dApps) and other tokenized assets. However, both blockchains recently added some limited support for Ethereum-compatible apps.
The catalysts and challenges
In 2020, XRP faced an existential crisis when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Ripple for selling its own XRP tokens to fund its expansion. The SEC alleged that Ripple was selling the token as an unlicensed security, and its lawsuit prompted the top crypto exchanges to delist XRP. Ripple also lost several of its top financial customers.
Last August, the SEC lawsuit finally concluded with a lighter-than-expected fine for Ripple. The court also ruled that XRP wasn't an unlicensed security when sold to retail investors on public crypto exchanges. That victory prompted the top crypto exchanges to relist XRP, and its first spot price exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were approved and launched in late 2025.
Those positive developments stabilized XRP's price, but it could face fierce competition from stablecoins -- including Ripple's own Ripple USD (RLUSD 0.01%) -- which could be more reliable bridge currencies than XRP because they're tightly pegged to the U.S. dollar. XRP also can't be valued by its scarcity, like Bitcoin, or its usefulness to developers, like Ethereum.
Dogecoin initially garnered significant attention from celebrity investors, including Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, and Snoop Dogg. Musk's unpredictable tweets about Dogecoin often drove its price higher, while several companies -- including Tesla (TSLA 2.56%) -- started to accept Dogecoin as a payment method.
CleanCore Solutions (ZONE +8.35%), a producer of ozone cleaning products, recently announced that it would acquire 5% of Dogecoin's entire circulating supply to build its own "Dogecoin Treasury". The SEC also approved Dogecoin's first spot price ETFs in late 2025, making the meme coin more accessible to retail investors. All of that buzz kept Dogecoin afloat, even though it lacks any clear advantages against Bitcoin, Litecoin, and other mined tokens.
Could XRP or Dogecoin generate more millionaire-making gains?
I don't think XRP and Dogecoin can turn a fresh $10,000 investment into $1 million again over the next decade. However, if we stretch the timeline a bit further, I believe XRP has a brighter future and a better chance at generating bigger multibagger gains than Dogecoin.
XRP may not seem particularly impressive on its own, but its integration into Ripple's expanding fintech ecosystem could significantly boost its long-term value. Ripple submitted its application for a U.S. bank charter last July, and its expansion and evolution into a full-fledged bank could drive XRP's price to fresh highs over the next few decades. I'm not as optimistic about Dogecoin, which is still primarily supported by hype and social media buzz instead of any fundamental strengths.
