XRP has failed to match the long-term price gains recorded by Bitcoin, Ether and several other major cryptocurrencies, remaining significantly below its previous bull-market record despite the broader industry’s growth.
Although long-term holding is often viewed as a strategy for building wealth in crypto, XRP’s price history illustrates how results can vary considerably between digital assets.
The cryptocurrency, which powers the XRP Ledger’s payments-focused ecosystem, ranks fifth globally by market capitalization. Yet XRP continues to trade far below its peak from the 2017–2018 market cycle, unlike several prominent competitors that have moved beyond their previous records.
At approximately $1.33, XRP is trading 62.5% below its early January 2018 high of $3.55. Investors who purchased the token near that level and held it for almost nine years would still be sitting on significant losses. XRP briefly moved above its previous record in July 2025, reaching $3.66, but subsequently reversed those gains.
Other cryptocurrencies have delivered stronger returns relative to their earlier peaks. Bitcoin has gained 314% from its December 2017 high of $19,804. Dogecoin has advanced 322% from its January 2018 peak, while BNB has surged approximately 2,800%. Ether has increased 66%, and Zcash (ZEC) has risen 38%. Tron remains roughly 4% below its previous high, while Solana launched in 2020 and does not have a comparable peak from the 2017–2018 cycle.
Despite considerable corrections from their 2025 highs, Bitcoin, Ether and several other major assets continue to trade well above their levels during the previous major crypto bull market.
Growing Token Supply Limits XRP’s Price Recovery
Market analysts identify the expansion in XRP’s circulating supply as an important factor behind its weaker price performance.
Nicolai Sondergaard, a senior research analyst at Nansen, told CoinDesk that the number of XRP tokens in circulation increased by 63%, rising from 38.7 billion in 2017 to 63.1 billion. During the same period, XRP’s total market capitalization declined by only about 3%.
Circulating supply measures the number of tokens available in the market. When that number increases, each individual token represents a smaller share of the cryptocurrency’s overall market value. Unless investor demand grows sufficiently to absorb the additional supply, the increase can make it harder for the price to return to its former high.
Oliver Carding, head of marketing at Tesseract Group, said XRP’s performance looks more favorable when viewed through total market capitalization rather than its price alone.
Carding argued that XRP has recovered in terms of overall market value. However, with approximately 63% more tokens circulating than at the previous peak, matching the earlier circulating market capitalization would imply a token price roughly 39% lower.
Tesseract Group is an institutional digital asset management firm with more than $500 million in assets under management.
XRP Investment Funds Attract Less Capital
The introduction of U.S.-listed cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds has expanded institutional access to digital assets. Bitcoin and Ether ETFs have attracted billions of dollars, but XRP-related funds have recorded comparatively smaller inflows.
Paul Howard, senior director at market-making firm Wincent, said institutional adoption through XRP ETFs has been relatively limited compared with Bitcoin and Ether products.
SoSoValue data shows that XRP funds have attracted approximately $1.80 billion in cumulative net inflows since launching nearly a year ago. Bitcoin ETFs, by comparison, can receive more than $1 billion in inflows in a single day.
Other market indicators also point to weaker participation in XRP trading. Nansen data shows that spot trading volume has declined 53.5%, perpetual futures volume has fallen 44%, and active addresses have dropped 10.7%.
The reductions suggest that trading activity and participation across the XRP market have weakened, potentially restricting the token’s ability to sustain a stronger recovery.
Ripple Prioritizes Payments Infrastructure
Ripple’s business priorities may also help explain XRP’s relative underperformance. The company associated with the token has concentrated on cross-border payments, payment infrastructure, its RLUSD stablecoin and trade-financing solutions rather than placing primary emphasis on other fast-growing crypto sectors.
Decentralized finance, artificial intelligence projects and memecoins have attracted substantial investor attention and capital, while some competing blockchain ecosystems have expanded their connections with traditional financial services.
Howard told CoinDesk that Ripple has devoted considerable resources to developing payment infrastructure, RLUSD and trade-financing products built around the XRP Ledger. This broader strategy has shifted attention beyond XRP as an individual investment asset.
Investors now have a wider range of opportunities across the crypto market. Howard also observed that decentralized finance has become an important part of the investment narrative for Ether, Solana and Hyperliquid’s HYPE token, whereas XRP has not focused on this area to the same degree.
SEC Dispute Weighed on XRP’s Market Performance
Ripple’s prolonged legal battle with U.S. regulators has also been cited as a factor that held back XRP.
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 sales to institutional investors did. Ripple was ordered to pay a $125 million penalty in 2024. The dispute ended in August 2025, when both parties dropped their appeals.
Carding said the years of regulatory uncertainty help explain why XRP did not reclaim its 2018 peak during the 2021 crypto bull market. Coinbase’s suspension of XRP trading during the dispute also affected the token’s market environment.
He noted that the appeals were dropped in August 2025, when XRP traded above $3. Since then, the cryptocurrency 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 the same period.
The figures suggest that the conclusion of the legal dispute was not enough to generate a lasting recovery in XRP’s price.
XRP Is Not the Only Coin Still Below Its Previous High
XRP’s performance is not unique among older cryptocurrencies. Carding pointed out that six of the nine other assets that ranked among the top 10 cryptocurrencies in January 2018 are trading even further below their prices from that period.
For investors monitoring XRP, Carding recommends examining its performance against Bitcoin, monthly token distributions following Ripple’s escrow releases and changes in investment fund holdings.
The relationship between supply and demand will be particularly important. If XRP continues to underperform Bitcoin while the volume of newly distributed tokens decreases, it could indicate that investor demand remains insufficient to absorb the available supply.
Ultimately, XRP’s ability to narrow the gap with Bitcoin and Ether will depend on several factors, including circulating supply, institutional investment flows, market participation and sustained activity across the XRP Ledger ecosystem. Its role in cross-border payments may support adoption, but that alone does not guarantee stronger investment returns.
