3 Reasons Few People Know XRP Could Outperform Bitcoin This Year and Beyond

Bitcoin stands higher than all other cryptocurrencies like a digital Everest, but history shows that the market often rewards assets that quietly gain traction while attention is focused elsewhere. That momentum may be happening right now for XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) despite having fallen 7% over the past six months. Three new data points show that the momentum of XRP is accelerating much more than many investors realize. If this trend continues, it could even outperform Bitcoin by 2025 and perhaps even further, so take some time to understand each data point.

1. The Growth of Wallets is Exploding The more cryptocurrency wallets operate on the XRP chain, the more users will use it for its intended purposes. Wallets do not fully correlate with actual users, as people can have more than one wallet, but this is still a good proxy measure since every user needs at least one wallet to interact with the chain. XRP is developing strongly on that front. In the first quarter of this year, the average number of active wallet addresses increased by 142% quarter-on-quarter to 134,600, which is the fastest growth streak in the past two years. In contrast, on June 15, Bitcoin had about 705,000 active wallets, down from 841,905 wallets a year earlier. Therefore, the user base of XRP is almost certainly growing faster than Bitcoin, reinforcing the idea that it may outperform. A larger number of senders and recipients means broader ownership, deeper liquidity, and a higher ability for new capital to continue flowing in rather than flowing out immediately. If the number of XRP users continues to grow rapidly while Bitcoin stagnates, the price of this smaller coin could rise even higher and faster.
2. Users Are Really Getting Benefits Here The increase in the number of wallets indicates that some life is only half of the story. The other half is the volume of payments and transfers processed by XRP, which is also increasing, showing that real capital is truly moving across the chain. On June 10, there were 4.11 billion XRP in transaction volume within 24 hours, up from 295.67 million the day before, resulting in a spike of 1,300%. The network handled that increase without any technical difficulties, which is a significant achievement. It is questionable how most payment-oriented chains can handle such large transaction volumes without experiencing slowdowns. More importantly, this surge coincides with speculation on social media about regulatory agencies soon approving the XRP (ETF). However, even the main catalysts such as ETF approvals rarely drive traffic to increase 12 times on a chain unless there is a significant amount of real money moving. And increasing payment volumes signal rising commercial engagement, which is a positive point for XRP. It is unrealistic to expect the figure of 4.11 billion to become the new norm. The hype around ETFs may fade, or users may limit their large transfers. However, maintaining even a portion of the recent on-chain payment volume will also create significant upward price pressure for XRP.
3. An Important Technology Upgrade Is Coming Soon The final catalyst of XRP is technology. According to the development roadmap of the chain, a long-awaited Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is expected to launch before the end of Q2. This will allow developers to deploy the same smart contract code supporting Ethereum's decentralized finance ecosystem (DeFi) without sacrificing the quick settlement times of XRP. In English, this means that lending protocols of the chain, automated market makers (AMM) and profit strategies can run on the side chain while settling value back to the main ledger. Another significant impact is that developers often work on Ethereum applications -- which is the largest single developer segment in the cryptocurrency space -- will now also be empowered to develop applications that operate on the XRP ledger using the programming languages they are proficient in. Therefore, the XRP ecosystem is likely to experience a boom of new projects and applications aimed at addressing various DeFi niches.

Assuming the sidechain is delivered on schedule and the initial DeFi projects gain traction, XRP could layer programmable finance on top of its cross-border payment segment. This growth story would then provide a much broader set of potential revenue streams and network effects compared to before. Notably, Bitcoin will not undergo any such technological upgrades, nor will its growth story change much, so this is another factor driving XRP's faster growth. Of course, the security of the sidechain, the risks of bridging, and the maintenance of developer interest are all factors that need to be addressed in the coming quarters. But if the performance of the ledger so far is any indication, then the first two pieces of the puzzle will be solved to satisfy both investors and developers, which increases the likelihood that talent will also stay.