While XRP has staged a strong recovery over the past week, its performance relative to Bitcoin (BTC) has recently come into question.
The coin surged from below $1 to as high as $1.70 before retracing to around $1.43. Despite the rally, a long-term comparison with Bitcoin shows just how much XRP has lagged the largest cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin commentator Adam Livingston highlighted the contrast in a post on X. He noted that XRP is now trading around $1.43, compared with $3.02 on January 6, 2018.
That means XRP remains well below its price from more than eight years ago, despite the growth of the crypto market.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin has delivered a dramatically different performance. Livingston noted that BTC has climbed from around $17,000 on January 6, 2018, to approximately $78,401. That represents a 361% increase over the same period.
“Everything goes to zero against Bitcoin,” Livingston wrote, adding that the XRP/BTC pair is down 88.2%.
XRP Surges More Than 70% Before Retracing
The long-term comparison comes as XRP has experienced a dramatic move over the past week.
XRP traded at $0.978 last week before climbing to approximately $1.70, representing a gain of more than 72%. After the rally, the token has pulled back to around $1.43 but remains up roughly 43% over the past seven days.
Bitcoin has also rallied during the same period, moving from roughly $62,000 to as high as $81,000. BTC remains up around 22% over the past week.
The different performances have renewed debate in the crypto community.
‘Opportunity Cost’
X user Alexander Mason Alden argued that the comparison illustrates opportunity cost in crypto markets. Alden said XRP doesn’t need to fall to zero to underperform; it only needs BTC to compound faster for long enough.
Bitcoin commentator @Micro2Macr0 took a much harsher view, criticizing XRP and its connection to Ripple’s business model and calling it a scam.
XRP Remains a Major Trading Opportunity for Some
However, not all Bitcoin commentators are bearish on XRP. Davinci Jeremie, a longtime Bitcoin commentator and XRP critic, has previously made bullish price predictions for XRP.
In January 2025, when XRP was trading around $3.13, Jeremie predicted that the token could reach between $20 and $24 during the cycle.
However, Jeremie has also distinguished between XRP as a trading opportunity and XRP as a long-term investment. He remains critical of the token’s links to the banking and financial system and argues that these characteristics make XRP less attractive as a long-term holding.
The contrasting views underline the divide surrounding XRP. The token has delivered a powerful short-term rally, but its longer-term performance against Bitcoin remains significantly weaker.
While the latest surge shows that XRP could still make strong gains, those gains may look much smaller when compared with Bitcoin.