Helius CEO Says He’ll Shave his Head with a Pencil Sharpener if Solana Doesn’t Flip XRP

Mert Mumtaz, the CEO of the Solana-based tool Helius, has expressed confidence that Solana will eventually overtake XRP in market cap.

Mumtaz made the recent commentary despite SOL’s steeper decline on the back of the market-wide crash, with the altcoin collapsing 15.4% over the past week. This drop makes Solana the biggest loser among the top 30 assets by market cap over a 7-day timeframe.

Helius CEO Insists SOL Will Flip XRP

Meanwhile, XRP has held up better than most, seeing a 9% drop within the same period. With this performance, XRP, which now sits third among the largest non-stablecoin assets, has displayed better resilience than Ethereum (-12.83%), BNB (-11.08%), and Cardano (-11.45%). 

Nonetheless, Mumtaz believes Solana could recover to eventually displace XRP and claim the third spot, recently presenting a humorous challenge to express his confidence in this prediction. According to him, if Solana does not flip XRP, he will use a pencil sharpener to shave his head for up to a month. 

If SOL doesnt flip XRP, I will shave my head with a pencil sharpener for a month

— mert | helius.dev (@0xMert_) November 6, 2025

While the challenge itself takes a sarcastic tone, Mumtaz’s projection reflects his strong confidence in the Solana ecosystem, in which he built his infrastructure tool Helius. The crypto commentator has repeatedly suggested that Solana and Zcash (ZEC) could overtake XRP.

In one instance, Mumtaz, who is also a Zcash proponent, noted that while he may not be able to predict short-term moves, he remains confident that ZEC will flip XRP “no matter what.” According to him, XRP is 26x larger, but the community should “shield, forget, and build.”

people have now been saying this for 5 straight weeks

I don't pretend to play astrologist on short term horizons

but we are flipping XRP, no matter what

and XRP is about 26x higher atm

shield, forget, and build pic.twitter.com/d67PiMdl0m

— mert | helius.dev (@0xMert_) November 1, 2025

How High Solana Must Rise to Flip XRP

At press time, XRP trades for $2.22 with a market cap of over $133 billion. Due to its greater resilience amid the ongoing market onslaught, XRP has now reclaimed the third spot among the largest non-stables, overtaking BNB, but still below Tether (USDT). 

Notably, after recovering from the FTX dump, Solana overtook XRP in December 2023 and remained above it for nearly a year until XRP skyrocketed during the November 2024 rally. Since then, XRP has maintained a position above SOL.

Currently, Solana, which changes hands at $156, boasts a market cap of $86.6 billion. For Solana to eventually flip XRP again, it must add $46.4 billion to its market cap. To put things into perspective, SOL only added $52.54 billion to its valuation throughout the 2021 bull run despite surging 74,628% that year.

In addition, during the Q4 2024 rally on the back of the U.S. elections, Solana’s market cap grew by $19.11 billion. This year, SOL has shed $4.42 billion from its market cap. Notably, this puts some perspective on how far the journey to flip XRP may be for Solana, which currently sits as the fifth-largest non-stablecoin asset.

For Solana to surge to the $133 billion valuation mark, its price would need to increase to $240.3. This represents a mere 54% rise from the current price. SOL last saw this price as early as September 2025. However, the challenge for Solana lies in the fact that XRP may likely soar beyond the $133 billion mark in a situation where SOL observes such gains.