Ripple Veteran Schwartz Predicts XRP Can Flip Bitcoin, But There Is a Catch

Ripple veteran David Schwartz has entertained one of the $XRP community’s most ambitious scenarios: $XRP eventually overtaking Bitcoin by market capitalization.

During a recent appearance on X's "Spaces," Schwartz argued that an $XRP “flippening” is possible, but he attached an important caveat to the prediction.

Such a scenario, according to the longtime $XRP Ledger architect and Ripple CTO emeritus, would be more likely to happen because $XRP surges than because Bitcoin collapses.

$XRP could potentially capture a disproportionate share of that growth because of characteristics such as transaction speed and greater functionality compared to Bitcoin.

The $XRP Ledger was designed from the outset as a faster and more scalable alternative to Bitcoin for payments.

It's all about perspective

Earlier this year, Schwartz recalled that even a rally to $0.25 seemed implausible to him when $XRP was trading at roughly $0.006.

Schwartz said that he sold some $XRP around $0.10 because the valuation already seemed extraordinarily high at the time.

He made a similar comparison with Bitcoin, recalling that $100 $BTC once seemed almost absurd.

At the same time, Schwartz stressed that such comparisons have an important weakness: $XRP's market capitalization today is vastly larger than Bitcoin's was when $BTC first crossed $100.

$XRP once got surprisingly close to Bitcoin

There is historical precedent for $XRP dramatically narrowing Bitcoin's lead.

During the extraordinary cryptocurrency rally of late 2017 and early 2018, $XRP surged into second place and became Bitcoin's closest major challenger.

$XRP has notably overtaken Ethereum before. The most memorable flip occurred in late December 2017.

Back then, $XRP's capitalization had jumped to roughly $86 billion, putting it comfortably ahead of Ethereum at $73 billion and making $XRP the world's second-largest cryptocurrency. $XRP remained ahead at the end of the year.

At a price of $1.42, $XRP currently has a market capitalization of approximately $89.1 billion, making it the fifth-largest cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, is changing hands at roughly $78,693 with a market capitalization of approximately $1.58 trillion.

That means Bitcoin is currently worth about 17.7 times more than $XRP by market capitalization.