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Grayscale recently tracked the top crypto assets by market cap since 2018, and data shows $XRP has consistently ranked among the top 6.
Despite being one of the earliest crypto assets to launch after the advent of Bitcoin (BTC) in 2009, $XRP has managed to maintain its relevance in the space for over 13 years. Grayscale confirmed tracking the top assets by market cap since 2018 and found that $XRP has maintained a top 6 position within this period.
Key Points
- $XRP remains one of the few pre-2015 crypto assets to retain its relevance.
- A recent Grayscale report confirms that since 2018, $XRP has maintained a top 6 position in the market.
- $XRP’s highest ranking was the second position, which it forfeited to Ethereum in 2020 and has failed to reclaim since.
- $XRP collapsed to sixth, its lowest ranking, in 2022 amid the SEC lawsuit that started in December 2020.
- Besides $XRP and Bitcoin, no pre-2015 coin is currently in the top 5.
Current $XRP Ranking
Grayscale shared its report on X amid the ongoing crypto market downturn that has dealt a blow to asset prices since the fourth quarter of 2025. Notably, the altcoin market has lost $198 billion worth of valuation since the start of the year, and $XRP contributes $26.5 billion to this figure.
Interestingly, the token has held up better than $BNB, which has lost $35 billion within the same period despite having a lower market valuation overall. While $XRP has occasionally relinquished its third spot to $BNB during the downturn, it has often recovered it. At the time of the Grayscale snapshot, $XRP held third, holding an $85 billion market cap.
Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) retained its second spot, which it has sustained over the past six years, boasting a market cap of $270 billion. As for Bitcoin, the crypto firstborn has had an unchallenged run at the top, remaining the only constant factor in the ranking with a current valuation of $1.44 trillion.
$XRP’s Historical Rankings
Launched in 2013, $XRP quickly worked its way to the top 3 ranking in August, the same month it started trading publicly. During that period, the top 10 featured a list of tokens that most investors today would fail to recognize due to names that have lost their relevance in today’s market.
Specifically, Bitcoin led the ranking, with Litecoin in second and $XRP securing third. From fourth to eighth featured Namecoin (NMC), Peercoin (PPC), Feathercoin (FTC), Novacoin (NVC), and Primecoin (XPM). For context, all lists exclude stablecoins.
By the end of September 2014, $XRP had overtaken Litecoin to become the second-largest crypto asset. It maintained this position until the launch of Ethereum in July 2015. From February 2016, the battle between $XRP and Ethereum for the second spot began. $XRP eventually lost this battle in 2020, the same year the SEC lawsuit began.
$XRP Maintains Top 6 Spot
According to Grayscale’s report, $XRP’s lowest ranking since 2018 came in 2022 in the heat of the SEC lawsuit, which led to reduced trading volumes and delistings in the U.S. Notably, $XRP dropped to the sixth spot that year, slipping below $BNB, Solana ($SOL), and Cardano ($ADA).
While $XRP overtook $ADA and occasionally pushed above $SOL in the years that followed, it remained below $BNB until the November 2024 rally. This run allows $XRP to firmly recover its third spot. Meanwhile, during its period of underperformance, $XRP managed to maintain a top 6 spot, excluding stablecoins.
Since 2025, $XRP has retained the third ranking, occasionally relinquishing it to $BNB during market declines, but recovering the position almost immediately each time.
Interestingly, the Grayscale data confirms that Bitcoin and $XRP are the only pre-2018 tokens that have remained in the top 5 ranking at press time. Dogecoin (DOGE), which launched in December 2013, ranks seventh. The rest of the pre-2015 tokens in the top 20 are Monero (13th), Stellar (14th), and Litecoin (17th). Of these tokens, only Litecoin launched before 2013.