Holding is widely touted as a great way to build wealth in the crypto market, but it hasn't worked for every coin.
Take XRP (XRP), the payments-focused cryptocurrency native to the XRP Ledger and the world’s fifth-largest digital asset by market value.
The token is still trading well below its 2017 cycle high, while most other major cryptocurrencies have climbed far above theirs. In 2017, crypto broke into the mainstream, pulling in new users and investors during the frenzied run that carried into the first week or two of 2018.
XRP currently trades around $1.33, down 62.5% from its early January 2018 peak of $3.55. In other words, an XRP buyer from that peak is still underwater nearly nine years later. (XRP did briefly top its old high, reaching $3.66 in July 2025 before crashing.)
Bitcoin is up 314% from its December 2017 peak of $19,804. Dogecoin is up 322% from its January 2018 high, and BNB is up about 2,800%. Ether is up 66% and zcash (ZEC) is up 38%. Tron is also slightly below its peak, down about 4%. Solana launched in 2020.
Bitcoin, ether and many other tokens have pulled back sharply from their 2025 peaks, yet remain far above their 2017 highs.
1B, while XRP's total market value fell only about 3%," Nicolai Sondergaard, senior research analyst at analytics firm Nansen, told CoinDesk.
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