XRP (XRP) has soared to a five-year high against Ether (ETH), increasing conjecture that XRP would surpass Ethereum in market capitalisation.
Analysts, traders, and crypto aficionados have been drawn to this development and started discussions on the changing dynamics in the bitcoin market.
XRP Surge Challenges Ethereum
The XRP/ETH trading pair peaked on March 15, 2025, at 0.00128 ETH, above its level in April 2020. This amazing surge has clearly shown XRP’s current momentum. From a lowest point of 0.00013 ETH in June 2024. XRP has surged by 925%, a significant rise that has led many to question whether XRP could challenge Ethereum for hegemony in the crypto market.
Furthermore, XRP has experienced a 620% rise since November 2024, following former U.S. President Donald Trump’s re-election, fuelling the debate on the possibility of XRP flipping Ethereum in the not-too-distant future.
XRP’s Potential to Surpass Ethereum
XRP’s future approach towards the 0.0012 ETH resistance level is notable among many market watchers. For the asset, this level has often signalled important turning moments. XRP has shown notable increasing momentum whenever it has approached and broken through this level, usually surging by at least 160%. Should this trend continue, XRP might witness more increases, maybe surpassing Ethereum in market capitalisation.
Should XRP sustain this momentum and surpass previous resistance thresholds, it would be positioned for a significant price increase. Given Ethereum’s present woes in 2025, analysts speculate that even a more conservative 80% surge might propel XRP to surpass Ethereum.
XRP’s Market Capitalisation
XRP’s market capitalisation is projected to be roughly $138 billion as of mid-March 2025. This is closely aligned with Ethereum’s market capitalisation of $231.2 billion. But XRP’s completely diluted value (FDV) momentarily exceeded Ethereum’s previous this week, which is even more enjoyable. FDV is a measure of a cryptocurrency’s total theoretical worth should all of its tokens be in use. This implies that, given a possible value, XRP might be positioned to outperform Ethereum.
The completely diluted pricing has attracted much interest since it indicates that XRP’s possible worth may surpass Ethereum’s if all the circulating tokens be sold. Although this statistic is only theoretical, it provides a helpful comparison of XRP’s development potential to Ethereum.
Regulatory Support Drives XRP Growth
The favourable regulatory environment—especially under the Trump administration—is one of the main elements that can help XRP’s continuous climb. Emphasising pro-crypto rules, the United States’ regulatory scene has become more friendly towards cryptocurrencies. This legislative change has dramatically increased institutional interest in XRP.
Institutional investors have paid close attention to XRP, best shown by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) filing by investment firm Franklin Templeton. This paperwork mirrors more significant market trends favouring established cryptocurrencies like XRP and shows increasing faith in XRP’s long-term viability.
XRP’s Comeback and Solana’s Challenge
While XRP is seeing a comeback, other blockchain initiatives—especially Solana (SOL)—pose more competition to Ethereum. Solana’s explosive ascent has upended Ethereum’s dominance, particularly in distributed finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other industries, formerly dominated.
With its Dencun upgrade in March 2024. Ethereum’s most recent attempt to keep its edge sought to lower transaction fees by 95%, increasing scalability. However, this update unintentionally reduced ETH burn rates, increasing ETH supply and reducing its once deflationary attractiveness. Investors starting to search for substitutes for Ethereum have grown worried about this state of affairs.
XRP vs. Ethereum
Though XRP has lately shown excellent performance, not all analysts believe it can eventually outperform Ethereum. Critics contend that Ethereum’s continuous supremacy on the blockchain depends on its strong ecosystem of distributed apps (dApps), smart contracts, and developer acceptance. Long the backbone of decentralised finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), many feel that other cryptocurrencies cannot readily copy Ethereum’s extensive developer base and platform’s value.
Moreover, although XRP’s emphasis on cross-border payments is appreciated, some feel it restricts the asset’s application possibilities. XRP’s value proposition has mostly been based on enabling faster and less expensive cross-border transactions, which, although important, might not have the same range of uses as Ethereum’s network.
Final thoughts
Many have speculated that XRP would be about to outperform Ethereum based on its fantastic price increase and rising market capitalisation. Though XRP’s recent performance is outstanding, it is unknown if it can maintain its pace and finally surpass Ethereum in the cryptocurrency ladder. XRP is unlikely to quickly replace Ethereum given its rivalry, as well as Ethereum’s robust ecosystem and institutional support.
XRP market future expansion will rely on regulatory changes, ongoing institutional support, and continuous rivalry from other blockchain networks.
