One of these coins is on much firmer footing. Here's why.
When two blockchains chase the same pool of capital, the one that solves bigger problems for pickier (and richer) customers usually wins. The next few years look like a test of that dynamic, with XRP (XRP 1.84%) and TRON (TRX +0.26%) vying for victory. Both move dollars quickly, but by 2030, I predict that XRP will be worth far more than TRON.
Here's why.
Today, XRP's market cap of $156.5 billion is far larger than TRON's market cap of $27.8 billion. By 2030, that gap is going to widen by a lot, in XRP's favor.
The coin's long-running legal battles are now over. In May, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a settlement framework with Ripple, the company that issues XRP. That lowers the risk for financial institutions considering exposure to the XRP ecosystem — and they're the chain's target market.
On the product side, Ripple's dollar stablecoin RLUSD is live and designed for institutional comfort, with issuance on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) so that holders can take advantage of the chain's strong suite of regulatory compliance tooling intended for use by banks and other institutions. That matters because big money moves onto stablecoins first before parking value in other assets. Having large native stablecoin rails makes on-chain finance a lot simpler to operate and a lot easier to get started with.
Ripple is also acting like a financial infrastructure business. Its recent Hidden Road acquisition includes a multi-asset prime brokerage footprint and institutional distribution, reinforcing the pitch that XRP, RLUSD, and capital markets tooling interlock gracefully to form a financial platform that many wealthy users will be eager to adopt.
Now that we're up to speed on a few of XRP's strengths, let's see why TRON will lag further behind.
TRON is currently the dominant stablecoin settlement chain, with $78.7 billion in stablecoin value, much of which is USDT.
Forensic reports have tied most illicit crypto transfer volumes to stablecoins specifically on TRON's network. That's exactly the kind of narrative that keeps traditional institutions and investors cautious and sidelined. It could actually threaten USDT itself, which, if compromised, would devastate TRON. Furthermore, signals from major U.S. players have not helped. Circle Internet Group ended its stablecoin support on TRON in early 2024 under its risk framework, underscoring that not all stablecoin issuers view every chain as equally suitable.
Given the backdrop of being a single-purpose chain that's consistently threatened by what its clientele decides to use its platform for, TRON's future is far less certain than XRP's. It could still manage to add on new features (though it hasn't showed much momentum on that front), so it could still continue to grow.
But, in comparison to XRP's strong product-market fit and rapid onboarding of new customers in its target market, its odds of catching up to the bigger coin's value are practically zero. It's far more likely to lag behind even more.
Alex Carchidi has positions in Circle Internet Group. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.
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