Tether vs XRP: Tether takes the third spot once again, but how long will the lead last?

The Tether vs XRP affair is still far from over as the stablecoin giant has once again taken the third spot from Ripple’s XRP.

Tether (USDT) has once again snatched XRP’s position as the third-largest cryptocurrency by market value. The main cause behind the recent takeover might be Ripple’s lack of adoption amongst retail investors.

Tether vs XRP

Ripple has shown a steadily deteriorating performance for the last two years which is evident from the asset’s market capitalization that decreased from nearly 130 billion dollars in January 2018 to its current value at 8.6 billion dollars. The asset has had a much worse performance compared to Ethereum, the second-largest crypto by market cap.

XRP was once competing against Ethereum for the number two spot, however, Ethereum’s current market cap is greater than both XRp and USDT’s market cap combined and by a good lead.

Meanwhile, USDT has minted billions of dollars worth of USDT in the last few months. The asset regularly reports the highest daily trading volume for any cryptocurrency.

USDT’s daily trading volume in May outpaces XRP’s trade volume by a factor of 25. This can be attributed to Ripple’s lack of traction with retail investors. XRP’s trade volume across the last 24 hours was lower than six other cryptocurrency assets that include EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and the top three cryptos by market cap. 

While the stablecoin currently has a lead of 200M in its market cap, it does not mean that the Tether vs XRP debate is over. In a strong bullish rally, XRP might blow past USDT which cannot move up or down by more than a few percentage points.