A tweet from Ripple's official account from May 6, 2013, is making the rounds again — and it shows just how much the story around XRP has changed. Back then, Ripple openly referred to XRP as its token and celebrated overtaking Bitcoin in market cap. These days, that kind of language is off-limits in corporate filings and courtroom testimony.
The context was simple: Bitcoin's market cap was still under $2 billion, and because of the pre-mined 100 billion XRP coins, the latter briefly claimed the top spot based on the logic of fully diluted supply.
It was not the last time. Back in early 2018, XRP was trading at $2.38 and had a market cap of $238 billion, which was more than Bitcoin's $214 billion. It was a rare occasion when BTC did not lead the way in the crypto world.
That ranking did not hold up. Skip ahead to 2026, and the gap is still big. Bitcoin is trading at around $92,800, with a valuation of $1.85 trillion. XRP is at $2.28, which puts it at $138 billion in market cap. It is currently ranked fourth, behind Ethereum and Tether, with a 13x gap separating it from Bitcoin.
XRP is not Ripple
The tweet should not be judged by the old numbers, but by the way they are presented. Back in 2013, Ripple promoted XRP's rise as its own success. There was no line between the company and the asset. But then the SEC lawsuit came along, and Ripple started saying that XRP is its own thing and is not a security tied to the company.
This is a bit of a contradiction, since the token used to be called "Ripple" and is now being rebranded as separate, decentralized and hands-off. But the historical record shows something different, and the tweet still says what it says.
Arman Shirinyan
Alex Dovbnya
Dan Burgin