Ethereum
ETH
XRP
XRP
Ethereum vs XRP
Last 7 days, both indexed to zero
Each line starts at zero seven days ago and shows the percentage move since, so the two are on the same scale regardless of what one coin costs. Seven days is a week, not a trend.
| ETH | XRP | |
|---|---|---|
| Price A higher price per coin is not a bigger asset — it is the same value cut into fewer pieces. | $1,864.02 | $1.01 |
| Market cap Price multiplied by circulating supply. The closest thing to "how big is this". | $224.91B (larger) | $63.39B |
| Rank by market cap | #2 (larger) | #6 |
| Change, 24h | ▼0.30% | ▼0.40% |
| Change, 7 days | ▼0.40% | ▼5.80% |
| 24h volume How much actually changed hands. Thin volume against a large market cap means the price is easier to move than the cap suggests. | $6.58B (larger) | $1.27B |
| Daily turnover Volume as a share of market cap — how much of the asset trades in a day. | 2.92% (larger) | 2.00% |
| Circulating supply | 120,682,036 ETH | 62,533,271,955 XRP (larger) |
| Supply cap A hard cap and an uncapped supply are different designs, not a better and a worse one — what matters is whether issuance is predictable. | No fixed cap | 100,000,000,000 max |
| Below all-time high How far each sits under its own record price. It says where the price has been, not where it is going. | ▼62.31% | ▼72.25% |
| All-time high | $4,946.05 Aug 2025 | $3.65 Jul 2025 |
A highlighted figure is simply the larger of the two. It is marked on size, liquidity and supply — where bigger is a fact — and deliberately not on price or on percentage change, where "bigger" would be us implying a winner.
How Ethereum and XRP actually differ
Both are more than a currency, but they are extending in opposite directions. Ethereum is a programmable platform: its value comes from what other people build on it, and ETH is the fuel that pays for that computation. The XRP Ledger is purpose-built for settlement — moving value between parties and currencies in seconds — and XRP is the asset that bridges those transfers.
The difference is what each network will let you write. Ethereum runs arbitrary code, which is why stablecoins, lending markets and exchanges-as-software live there, and also why contract bugs have cost users billions. The XRP Ledger has payments, a built-in exchange and issued assets as first-class features rather than as user-deployed contracts, which makes it fast and predictable and leaves it with far less to build on.
Supply and control differ too. Ethereum has no fixed cap; validators earn newly issued ETH and part of every fee is burned. XRP's 100 billion units all existed at launch, with a large share held by Ripple and released from escrow over time, so the float expands on a company's schedule.
Both have real drawbacks. Ethereum's fees rise with demand, its activity has migrated to layer-2 rollups that split the experience across chains, and its complexity is a permanent source of risk. XRP is closely identified with one company, spent five years under an SEC lawsuit that ended in 2025, and depends on a validator set participants choose to trust rather than on open competition. Neither substitutes for the other.
What each one is
Ethereum
Ethereum is a programmable blockchain launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin and a group of co-founders. Where Bitcoin tracks who owns what, Ethereum runs code: smart contracts that execute exactly as written, which is what most stablecoins, lending protocols and NFTs are actually built on.
XRP
XRP is the native asset of the XRP Ledger, a payment network that launched in 2012 and is closely associated with the company Ripple. It was built for one purpose: moving value between currencies quickly and cheaply, with transactions settling in seconds for a fraction of a cent.
Where each one lives
Ethereum
Native asset. ETH has no token contract — it is the asset of its own chain, not a token issued on someone else's.
XRP
Native asset. XRP has no token contract — it is the asset of its own chain, not a token issued on someone else's.
Whichever you hold, holding it yourself is the same problem
Both of these can sit on an exchange, and on an exchange neither of them is yours in the way people assume. If you decide to hold either one properly, this is the category that does it — devices that keep the keys off any internet-connected machine.
All hardware wallets we list → Some listings earn us a commission. That buys position on a list and nothing else — our rules, in writing.
We do not know your position, your timeframe or your tolerance for losing money, and any page that claims to answer this question without knowing those things is selling something. What we can do is make sure the facts above are current and that nothing on this page was paid for. Both of these assets can fall a long way.
Other comparisons
Figures for Ethereum and XRP synced 17s ago from CoinGecko and shown in USD. This page is market information and education, not financial advice, and nothing on it is a recommendation to buy or sell ETH or XRP. Both can lose value.