XRP May Have Replaced Solana as the Hottest Cryptocurrency

Solana may have been the hottest cryptocurrency on the planet last year but institutional investors remain wary of the Ethereum rival.

Solana may be one of the hottest cryptocurrencies but institutional investors remain wary of the Ethereum rival.

That’s the upshot from the “unremarkable” debut of exchange-traded funds for Solana futures made during their first week of trading, according to crypto data firm Kaiko.

CME Group, one of the world’s largest marketplaces for derivatives, launched its Solana futures product on March 18.

There was $12 million in trading volume, far less than similar products launched for Bitcoin and Ethereum in the past.

And a greater share of that volume came in smaller contracts targeted toward retail, rather than institutional, investors, according to Kaiko.

XRP vs Solana

Meanwhile, XRP has outpaced as the biggest cryptocurrency in the year to date.

Bitcoin, Ether, Binance’s BNB token, Solana, Cardano and Tron’s TRX token have each fallen at least 5% in 2023.

Yet, XRP is up more than 18%.

Moreover, XRP, which is designed to help Ripple facilitate cross-border payments, has enjoyed deeper liquidity and spot trading volume than Solana in 2023, according to Kaiko.

The Solana ETF’s opening underscores a rough patch for the blockchain and its eponymous token.

In 2024, the blockchain became the most popular platform to launch memecoins, and the explosive growth of those tokens drove network activity to new highs in January.

But controversy surrounding several memecoin projects have battered Solana, including one that embarrassed the president of Argentina, Javier Milei.

With the exception of Ethereum and Dogecoin, the market value of Solana has plunged more than any other top 10 token in 2023.

Deeper liquidity

At the same time, XRP has outpaced Solana in several metrics despite existing on a blockchain with little uptake.

Solana used to enjoy four times the spot trading volume that XRP saw, according to Kaiko. Now, XRP spot trading volume is higher.

And XRP enjoys deeper liquidity than Solana, according to one measure.

About $3.2 million in XRP would have to be bought or sold at once to move its price by 1%, according to Kaiko. The same figure for Solana is $2.8 million.

Bolstered by its legal victory over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, XRP is now the fourth biggest cryptocurrency in the world, with a market value of $142 billion.

On Monday, the chances that the agency would approve XRP ETFs hit an all-time high on betting markets.

Crypto market movers

What we’re readingAleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.