比特币（BTC 0.93％）和XRP（XRP 5.54％）是非常不同的加密货币类型

比特币（BTC 0.93％）和XRP（XRP 5.54％）是非常不同的加密货币。比特币的市值为1.7万亿美元

Bitcoin (BTC 0.93%) and XRP (XRP 5.54%) are very different types of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, which has a market cap of $1.7 trillion, is the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency. It's mined through the energy-intensive proof-of-work mechanism, and nearly 20 million of its maximum supply of 21 million tokens have already been mined.

比特币（BTC 0.93％）和XRP（XRP 5.54％）是非常不同的加密货币。比特币的市值为1.7万亿美元，是世界上最有价值的加密货币。它是通过能源密集型的工作证明机制开采的，已经开采了其2100万个令牌的最高供应量的近2000万个。

Every four years, a “halving” takes place, reducing by 50% the amount of new Bitcoin that miners get for each block on the blockchain they validate. Based on the code that underlays the crypto, the last Bitcoin token will be mined in 2140. However, its finite supply makes it more comparable to gold and other commodities.Image source: Getty Images.

每四年一次一次“减半”，将矿工在他们验证的区块链上获得的新比特币的量减少了50％。根据加密货币支撑的代码，最后的比特币代币将在2140年开采。但是，其有限的电源使其与黄金和其他商品更具可比性。图片来源：Getty Images。

By contrast, XRP's entire supply of 100 billion tokens was pre-mined before it launched in 2013. Only 58 billion of those tokens are in circulation today; the rest are locked up across Ripple's escrow accounts. It periodically releases some of those tokens to stabilize its liquidity and supply. XRP can't be mined anymore, and Ripple's blockchain can't be used to develop decentralized applications in the same way as proof-of-stake blockchains like Ethereum (ETH 2.87%) and Solana (SOL 2.61%). Those limitations to its scarcity and utility make it harder to value than Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies.

相比之下，XRP在2013年推出之前已经预先开采了XRP的全部供应。今天只有580亿个代币流通；其余的锁定在Ripple的托管帐户中。它会定期发布其中一些代币以稳定其流动性和供应。 XRP不能再开采了，Ripple的区块链不能与以太坊（ETH 2.87％）和Solana（SOL 2.61％）这样的用途证明区块链以相同的方式开发分散的应用程序。与比特币和其他一些加密货币相比，这些局限性对其稀缺性和效用的限制使其更难估价。

Over the past 12 months, Bitcoin's price rose about 40% as XRP's price surged nearly 270%. Let's see why XRP outperformed Bitcoin by such a wide margin -- and consider which one is the better cryptocurrency to buy right now.

在过去的12个月中，随着XRP的价格飙升了近270％，比特币的价格上涨了约40％。让我们看看为什么XRP以如此宽的利润率优于比特币 - 并考虑哪一种是现在购买的更好的加密货币。

When Ripple initially launched XRP in 2013, it hoped the token would be adopted for financial transactions on its payment platform. However, Ripple's customers largely used its blockchain to process fiat currency transactions instead of trying out XRP.

当Ripple最初于2013年推出XRP时，它希望该令牌将在其支付平台上用于金融交易。但是，Ripple的客户在很大程度上使用其区块链来处理法定货币交易，而不是尝试XRP。

In late 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) filed charges against Ripple, alleging that its $1.3 billion offering of XRP tokens had constituted an illegal sale of unregistered securities. That lawsuit caused Ripple to lose several customers and led to the XRP token being delisted from the top crypto exchanges. Grayscale Investments also shut down its XRP Trust in 2021. All of those problems, along with rising interest rates, drove investors away from XRP.

2020年底，美国证券交易所（SEC）对波纹提起了指控，指控其13亿美元的XRP代币构成了未注册证券的非法出售。该诉讼导致Ripple失去了几个客户，并导致XRP令牌从顶级加密交易所中脱颖而出。灰度投资还关闭了2021年的XRP信托。所有这些问题，以及利率上升，将投资者远离XRP。

But last August, the SEC lawsuit finally ended with a lighter-than-expected fine for Ripple. The SEC began appealing that ruling, but those appeals could be dropped as President Trump's appointees relax the government's oversight of the crypto market.

但是去年八月，SEC诉讼终于以波纹的罚款较轻。 SEC开始对这一裁决提出上诉，但是随着特朗普总统的任命放宽政府对加密货币市场的监督，这些上诉可能会被撤销。

Meanwhile, XRP was relisted by the major crypto exchanges, Grayscale relaunched its XRP Trust as a closed-end fund (CEF) for accredited investors, and several asset management firms have submitted applications to the SEC for permission to launch XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs). All of those developments -- along with Trump's election victory, hopes for lower interest rates, and the broader rotation back toward cryptocurrencies -- helped drive XRP's price higher.

同时，XRP由主要的加密交易所重新列入，Grayscale重新推出了其XRP Trust作为认可的投资者的闭门基金（CEF），几家资产管理公司已向SEC提交了申请，以启动XRP交易所交易所交易所的许可（ETFS）。所有这些事态发展 - 以及特朗普的选举胜利，对降低利率的希望以及更广泛的转移向加密货币的旋转 - 帮助提高了XRP的价格。

But over the past month, XRP has pulled back about 30% as Trump's threats of tariffs and mass deportations sparked fears of rising inflation and elevated interest rates. The high-risk category of cryptocurrency investments is still quite sensitive to macroeconomic twists and turns. This may change in the long run, making solid inflation hedges out of robust crypto names, but that's not how it works in early 2025. So if the Fed sees inflation rising and pauses its interest rate cuts -- or starts hiking rates again -- a new crypto winter could begin.

但是在过去的一个月中，由于特朗普对关税和大规模驱逐出境的威胁激发了人们对通货膨胀率上升和利率提高的担忧，因此XRP撤回了约30％。高风险的加密货币投资类别仍然对宏观经济的转折敏感。从长远来看，这种情况可能会改变，从而使稳固的通货膨胀对冲，但这不是2025年初的工作方式。因此，如果美联储看到通货膨胀率上升并停止了其降低利率 - 或者再次开始远足率 - 新的加密蛋糕冬季就可以开始。

Bitcoin's price surged in 2024 as its first spot price ETFs were approved, it went through its latest halving, and institutional investors accumulated more tokens. It was also driven higher by Trump's pro-crypto campaign promises and the expectation that interest rates would come down.

比特币的价格在2024年获得了批准，其最新一半的价格飙升，机构投资者积累了更多的代币。特朗普的亲克莱普托（Crypto）竞选承诺和期望利率下降的期望也使它更高。

However, Bitcoin's price has pulled back by nearly 20% over the past month on the same fears of tariffs, inflation, and higher rates that chilled the rest of the crypto market. All of those challenges have largely overshadowed Trump's plans to build a "strategic Bitcoin reserve" through big government purchases of the cryptocurrency over the next few years. The surge that many coins saw on Sunday after Trump made another social media announcement about plans for a national crypto reserve had largely evaporated by Monday afternoon.

但是，在过去一个月中，比特币的价格降低了近20％，因为人们担心关税，通货膨胀和更高的费率，这些费用使其他加密货币市场降低了。所有这些挑战在很大程度上掩盖了特朗普在未来几年内购买加密货币的大型政府购买的“战略性比特币储备”的计划。在特朗普在周一下午，特朗普再次发布有关国家加密储备计划计划的社交媒体宣布后，许多硬币在周日看到的激增在很大程度上蒸发了。

So as long as the macro outlook stays murky, many investors will steer clear of cryptocurrencies and other speculative investments. Elevated interest rates could also keep more cash stashed away in safe-haven investments like CDs and U.S. Treasuries, or other high-yielding investments.

因此，只要宏观前景保持模糊，许多投资者就会避免加密货币和其他投机性投资。升高的利率还可以使更多现金藏在CD和美国国债等避难所投资或其他高收益投资中。

But over the long term, Bitcoin's price could stabilize and recover at a faster

但是从长远来看，比特币的价格可以更快地稳定和恢复