They’ve each had moments where they’ve led the crypto market recently, but one looks like a more attractive investment prospect.
XRP (XRP +0.37%) and Ethereum (ETH 2.29%) are two of the biggest cryptocurrencies, and they’ve delivered similar returns over the last five years. During that time period, XRP is up 845%, and Ethereum is up 849% (as of Oct. 24).
These cryptocurrencies have increased in value enough to make early investors millionaires, but what about if you’re investing today? At first glance, XRP looks like the obvious choice, as its market cap is less than a third of Ethereum’s. However, to figure out which is the better millionaire-maker, we need to look at their respective growth prospects.
XRP’s future hinges on cross-border payments
Ripple, a blockchain-based payments company, launched XRP in 2012 as a fast, affordable way to move money internationally. The company’s payments network has over 300 banking partners, and XRP supports its on-demand liquidity feature. Instead of having accounts pre-funded with foreign currencies, financial institutions can convert transfers to XRP, and recipients can convert the transfer from XRP to their own currency.
In a best-case scenario, Ripple and XRP emerge as a credible alternative to SWIFT, the current method of choice for international money transfers. SWIFT handles about $150 trillion in annual payment, and Ripple executives have predicted that XRP could capture 14% of that volume. Crypto analyst Paul Barron has an even more optimistic forecast, as he estimates XRP could acquire 20% of SWIFT’s volume.
Assuming 14% to 20% is accurate, Ripple would be processing $21 trillion to $30 trillion in payments per year. Those kind of numbers could send XRP skyrocketing.
However, the forecasts are a long way from reality. In January 2025, Ripple said in a blog post that Ripple Payments had served $70 billion in payments volume. Considering Ripple had been around over 12 years at that point, its payments volume isn’t anything to get excited about.
Even if adoption increases for Ripple, that doesn’t necessarily mean the same will happen for XRP. Most of the banks that partner with Ripple don’t use XRP, as they don’t need on-demand liquidity. XRP’s growth doesn’t just depend on Ripple taking over a larger share of the payments market — more financial institutions will also need to adopt XRP.
Ethereum is the launching point for all things DeFi
Ethereum popularized the idea of a blockchain as a software development platform. It runs smart contracts, which are programs built into a blockchain that developers can use to create decentralized apps (dApps).
Ethereum has a wide range of potential uses, but the one that’s catching on the most is decentralized finance (DeFi) services. These are blockchain alternatives to traditional financial products, including loans, savings accounts, and crypto exchanges.
For example, people who are looking for a loan and who have cryptocurrency to serve as collateral could use a crypto lending platform. These platforms also give investors the opportunity to earn passive income by depositing their cryptocurrency so it can be loaned out.
DeFi is a fast-growing segment of the cryptocurrency market. The total value locked (TVL) into DeFi is $152 billion, according to DeFiLlama, up from $82 billion a year ago. Ethereum is the most popular blockchain to build these types of services, as it has 62% of that TVL.
Closely related to this are stablecoins, crypto tokens designed to stay pegged to another asset. U.S. dollar stablecoins are the most common, led by Tether and USDC. Ethereum is also the most popular blockchain for stablecoins, accounting for 53% of the current stablecoin market, worth $305 billion.
Which cryptocurrency could be a millionaire-maker?
A reasonable guideline for a millionaire-maker is the potential to deliver 50 times to 100 times returns, meaning $10,000 to $20,000 invested would get you to $1 million. XRP is currently worth about $150 billion, meaning it would need to reach a market cap of at least $7.5 trillion. At $475 billion, Ethereum would need to get close to a $24 trillion market cap.
We probably aren’t seeing that anytime soon, meaning neither cryptocurrency looks like much of a millionaire-maker. Of the two, I’d say XRP has the slightly better odds. If Ripple can take a sizable portion of SWIFT’s business, and banks start using XRP, then there’s a very slim chance it mints some new millionaires.
Despite that, I actually think that Ethereum is the better investment. It’s the top blockchain in the growing DeFi market, and it has the type of widespread adoption that XRP doesn’t. Ethereum may not be the next cryptocurrency to explode, but it could continue to be one of the top performers.
