Ripple (XRP) vs. Hedera (HBAR): Which Could Gain the Most in 2025?

Maddie from the Altcoin Buzz YouTube channel analyzed the biggest “made in the USA” crypto projects: Ripple (XRP) and Hedera (HBAR).

In a recent analysis video from the Altcoin Buzz YouTube channel, Maddie, a crypto influencer, compared two big U.S.-based projects: Ripple (XRP) and Hedera (HBAR).

The goal was to help everyday investors allocate their crypto funds better. Both XRP and HBAR are strong contenders, but as Maddie pointed out, you can’t invest in everything. So, which one deserves your attention in 2025?

Let’s break it down just like he did, starting with performance, momentum, and what’s driving these two very different tokens.

Ripple Price: A Stellar Run but Slowing Momentum?

According to Maddie, Ripple’s XRP had a phenomenal 12-month stretch, gaining around 400%. That’s a huge return, especially when you consider its massive $153 billion market cap. In fact, XRP ranked number eight out of the top 300 coins during this period. It outperformed Monero, SUI, and even Bitcoin. Only Virtua Protocol, among the non-meme tokens, did better.

A lot of XRP explosive growth kicked off in late November and early December. Maddie links this to Trump’s win in the U.S. election. Markets seemed to expect that the new SEC leadership would be more crypto-friendly and settle Ripple’s case. That turns out to be accurate and helped push the XRP price even higher.

Looking closer at 2025 so far, the growth has been more modest. XRP started the year at $2.32 and is currently around $2.62. That’s a return of about 10 percent. Still a strong performance, especially considering how uneven the broader market has been.

Ripple is also making moves on the institutional side. They acquired Hidden Road, a global prime broker, and even made an offer to buy Circle, the company behind USDC. That offer was declined, but it shows Ripple’s intent to make a serious impact in the stablecoin space. Their own stablecoin, RLUSD, hasn’t gain traction yet, with very low daily usage.

There is a downside, though. Ripple insiders like Chris Larson continue to sell large amounts of XRP, which adds pressure on retail investors. Also, only 58.5 billion XRP are in circulation out of nearly 100 billion. That leaves room for more supply to hit the market over time.

HBAR Price: Quiet Strength and More Room to Run?

Hedera didn’t match XRP explosive growth over the past year, but it still had a strong performance. Maddie said Hedera posted a 91% return over 12 months. It didn’t land in the top 10 performers, which is still excellent by most standards.

Just like XRP, HBAR had a big move in late November through mid-December. Since then, it has been moving more steadily. The HBAR price has floated between $0.15 and $0.37. It’s currently around $0.21, which is down from $0.294 at the start of the year. That puts its year-to-date performance at around negative 30 percent.

Still, there are some promising developments under the surface. Hedera is making real progress in real-world assets. They are building a permissioned chain that allows regulated assets to be listed compliantly. A full launch is planned for next quarter. Hedera is already working with companies like Tokeny and Kabila to build out the ecosystem. This opens the door not just for tokenized assets but for CBDCs as well.

Tokenomics is another area where Hedera shines. About 84% of its 50 billion token supply is already in circulation—what you’d expect from a project that’s been around for a while. The governing council, made up of well-known companies, manages both the token release schedule and the validators.

Some do criticize HBAR for not being fully decentralized. The validators are permissioned, which means not everyone can just set up and run one. That’s something to consider depending on your views around decentralization.

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Maddie’s Final Take: Which Has More Potential?After looking at both projects, Maddie gave his honest opinion. He thinks Ripple has probably already gotten most of the benefit it was going to get from the SEC resolution and that momentum might be priced in already. Both Ripple and Hedera are involved in CBDC development—in some cases, they even work together—so neither one has a clear edge there.

But Maddie believes HBAR has a better setup going into the rest of 2025 with stronger tokenomics, a lower market cap that allows more upside, and is positioned well in the fast-growing world of real