Ethereum recently experienced a sharp price rally that took its price into the $2,700 range, marking a new monthly high for the king of altcoins. Prior to this, Ethereum’s price performance had been less impressive over the past few weeks, while the broader market was in a significant uptrend.
Historically, Ethereum has been one of the best performing cryptocurrencies, with an impressive growth trajectory since its inception. One of its best performances was seen during the last cycle, when it reached an all-time high close to the $5,000 level.
It is significant that as of January 2020, ETH was trading at just $126, but a year later, after Bitcoin’s third halving cycle, Ethereum’s value rose to $1,400, representing a more than 10-fold return.
Meanwhile, the uptrend continued, strengthening over time. It initially reached $4,362 by May 2021 before the first major pullback occurred, which brought its price down to the $1,800 range. By November 2021, Ethereum reached an all-time high of $4,859. From a low of $126 in January 2020 to its peak in 2021, Ethereum registered an explosive increase of 3,756%.
XRP’s Jump Compared to Ethereum
However, during the 2020/2021 cycle, XRP, which follows Ethereum in the rankings, experienced a less impressive price surge. Specifically, XRP saw a 954% increase over the same time period, rising from a low of $0.1858 in January 2020 to its cycle peak of $1.96 by 2021.
On the contrary, during the 2017/2018 season, XRP successfully competed with Ethereum, demonstrating better price dynamics. At one point, it even overtook Ethereum, reaching the status of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization on January 7, 2018.
Many believe that XRP’s weaker performance in 2020/2021 was due to the SEC lawsuit at the time. However, XRP emerged victorious in the legal battle, and now market participants continue to speculate about XRP’s potential this season.
XRP Price If It Follows Ethereum’s History
An intriguing prospect is whether XRP could mirror Ethereum’s 3,756% price surge since the last cycle. If XRP were to replicate Ethereum’s history, that magnitude of price growth would push XRP from its current value of $0.5455 to around $21.
