The fully diluted valuation (FDV) of the Ripple-linked XRP token has now remained above that of Ethereum (ETH) for several days.
The FDV metric takes into account both circulating and locked tokens. XRP would be above ETH in a hypothetical scenario where all tokens get released at current prices.
That said, XRP is still not even close to catching up with Ether's market cap. At press time, the two tokens are valued at $229 billion and $139 billion, respectively.
XRP's FDV stands at $234 billion, with close to 42 billion tokens not being in circulation.
According to Ripple's Q4 report, the total number of XRP tokens held by Ripple currently stands at nearly 4.5 billion. More than 38 billion XRP were locked in the company's escrow account.
Gamza KhanzadaevRipple unlocks a billion XRP tokens from the escrow on a monthly basis. Some of these tokens get sold or used for company operations. The lion's share of these XRPs get relocked into escrows.
Meanwhile, Ethereum has a dynamic supply model, meaning that the total number of ETH tokens is not capped, as in the case with XRP. It can be either inflationary or deflationary based on specific market dynamics.
Over the past month, the total Ethereum supply has grown by 0.72% with 71,170 tokens, according to data provided by ultrasound.money. This means that Ethereum is currently in an inflationary phase.
It is not far-fetched to assume that XRP might end up surpassing Ethereum by market cap. The Ripple-linked token managed to briefly top the flagship altcoin back in 2018 following the release of xRapid.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin