Bitcoin vs XRP: $100 Invested at Launch, Returns Compared

A Bitcoiner has compared the returns from investing just $100 in XRP at its launch with doing the same for Bitcoin, the premier crypto asset.

According to Mr. M Podcast, an investor who put $100 into BTC at its launch in January 2009 would now have an impressive $12.29 billion in their possession, given that 1 BTC is currently valued at $98,284. This calculation assumes that the BTC holdings, now valued at $12.29 billion, were acquired for $100 at the time of launch, suggesting that 1 BTC was priced at around $0.0008 then.

It's important to note that the precise price of Bitcoin at launch is still up for debate as there were hardly any crypto exchanges at the time to provide accurate pricing.

However, considering that the first real-world Bitcoin transaction occurred in May 2010 when Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 BTC, a purchase valued at $8, it can be assumed that the value of Bitcoin at the time was around $0.0008. Other sources also indicate that BTC was trading at about $0.0009 in 2009.

On the other hand, if an investor had purchased XRP with $100 at its launch in 2012, they would now have $47,800, considering that XRP is currently priced at $2.39.

This calculation suggests that an investment of $100 in XRP at its launch would have yielded approximately 20,000 XRP tokens, indicating that XRP was trading at about $0.005 at the time.

As with Bitcoin, the pricing data for XRP at launch is contested, although Coinlore's records show that the first rate detected by their platform was indeed $0.000589.

This comparison highlights a stark difference in returns, with Bitcoin boasting an incredible lifetime return of 12,289,999,900% compared to XRP's more modest return of 47,700%.

While Bitcoin remains the clear winner in terms of overall performance, XRP has outperformed BTC significantly since early 2017.

For instance, XRP is up an impressive 35,298% since January 2017, outpacing Bitcoin's gain of 10,406% in the same period.

Moreover, XRP has also outperformed Bitcoin in the past year, surging by 290% compared to BTC's 141% increase since January 2024 in the ongoing bull run.