Harvard computer science engineer Austin King, co-founder of the Omni Foundation, believes XRP could soon overtake Ethereum in market cap. In a recent interview on the Good Morning Crypto podcast, he stated, “Honestly, Ethereum is not in a good place.”
Ethereum’s Struggles: Inflation and Centralization
King pointed out that Ethereum had a unique opportunity to become a deflationary asset like Bitcoin. Initially, ETH’s supply was decreasing every month, making it a scarce and valuable asset. However, that is no longer the case.
Ethereum has externalized much of its activity to Layer 2 solutions, most of which run on a single computer. King argues that these are not truly decentralized networks, weakening Ethereum’s credibility.
His background in computer science and engineering makes him skeptical of Ethereum ever returning to a deflationary state. Without this feature, ETH loses a key advantage, making it less attractive to investors.
XRP: A Strong Contender for the No. 2 Spot
With Ethereum facing these issues, King believes XRP and Solana (SOL) are serious contenders to surpass it. XRP, in particular, has shown resilience as a deflationary asset with a strong use case in tokenized assets and cross-border payments.
XRP’s supply is fixed at 100 billion tokens, with Ripple releasing around 200 million XRP into circulation each month. Despite this, XRP has maintained its value and has surged by 580% in the last three months. During this time, Ethereum has remained relatively stagnant.
Can XRP Overtake Ethereum?
Currently, Ethereum holds a market cap of $322 billion, while XRP stands at $140 billion. However, if XRP surges another 145% to reach $6 per token, it would surpass Ethereum at its current valuation.
With Ethereum struggling to maintain decentralization and deflationary mechanics, XRP’s strong fundamentals and growing adoption could push it ahead. The race for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap is heating up, and XRP is proving to be a serious contender.
