Ripple CTO emeritus David Schwartz has said XRP could eventually overtake Bitcoin by market capitalization, but only through XRP growing faster than Bitcoin rather than through a Bitcoin collapse. Speaking during an X Spaces discussion, Schwartz answered 'yes' when asked whether he believed XRP could flip Bitcoin, while adding an important qualification.
'It wouldn’t happen from Bitcoin shrinking,' Schwartz said. 'It would happen from XRP growing faster than Bitcoin.' He argued the broader digital-asset market could expand substantially, allowing both cryptocurrencies to appreciate while XRP captures a larger share because of the XRP Ledger’s speed and functionality.
The current gap remains enormous. Bitcoin’s market capitalization is approximately $1.58 trillion, while XRP stands near $88.9 billion, making Bitcoin roughly 17.7 times larger by market value. With about 62.74 billion XRP in circulation, matching Bitcoin’s current market cap would imply an XRP price near $25.10, assuming Bitcoin itself did not rise. XRP currently trades around $1.42–$1.44. That is not a price forecast: if Bitcoin appreciates, XRP’s required flippening price would move higher as well.
There is historical precedent for XRP dramatically narrowing Bitcoin’s lead. On Jan. 1, 2018, XRP’s market cap reached about $92.6 billion against Bitcoin’s $229.1 billion, roughly 40% of Bitcoin’s value at the time. XRP also overtook Ethereum in late December 2017, when its capitalization jumped to roughly $86 billion compared with Ethereum’s $73 billion.
The comments arrive as regulated XRP investment products attract resilient demand. U.S. spot XRP ETFs recorded $1.55 million of inflows on Sept. 8, while Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana funds all posted outflows. XRP ETFs previously attracted $110.49 million in their strongest week of 2026, taking cumulative inflows to roughly $1.66 billion. Goldman Sachs has emerged as the largest disclosed XRP ETF holder at approximately $87.4 million. XRP also has a clearer U.S. regulatory position following the end of Ripple’s long-running SEC litigation.
Schwartz earlier recalled that even a rally to $0.25 seemed implausible when XRP traded around $0.006, and that he sold some XRP around $0.10 because the valuation already seemed extraordinarily high. He made a similar comparison with Bitcoin, recalling that $100 BTC once seemed almost absurd, while stressing that XRP’s market capitalization today is vastly larger than Bitcoin’s was when BTC first crossed $100.
