Which One Will Reach $1 First?

These two blue chip, large-cap, top-ten cryptocurrencies may not seem to have much in common. But they settled into a similar price range in December, according to market data from CoinGecko.

In the first two weeks in December, after XRP price found support around the $0.60 level in late November, ADA tokens rocketed up from key support at the $0.35 handle to settle in at that same $0.60 support level.

These two altcoins each recently scored a Binance listing with USDC as a trading pair (Solana and MATIC did too). Here’s how ADA and XRP compare on important price factors.

XRP vs. ADA: Technical Indicators

XRP price has been charting a falling wedge pattern for the better part of the one-month, two-month, and six-month windows. That is often a bullish reversal signal. Meanwhile, December saw bullish open interest in XRP long positions, with traders paying record fees to keep their positions open.

The summary technical analysis recommendation for ADA on TradingView Friday was “Buy” on a scale from “Strong Sell” to “Strong Buy.” ADA price traded at a bullish premium of $0.62 above its 30-day exponential moving average of $0.556, 50-day EMA of $0.504, and 100-day EMA of $0.428 on Friday’s chart.

XRP vs. ADA: Product and Community

Ripple continued expanding its business in Q4. At its annual Swell conference in Dubai this November, Ripple Labs announced it is expanding to serve U.S. corporate clients that don’t have their own money transmitter license with its updated settlements platform, Ripple Payments. In addition, Ripple announced a partnership with an African fintech company to extend XRP remittance services in Africa.

Like Ripple, Cardano expanded globally in Q4, rolling out a massive ADA education program in Brazil and a national ID service in Ethiopia. Meanwhile, the Cardano community is excited about codifying and moving the ADA ecosystem’s governance model on-chain in 2024. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said the CIP-1694 upgrade will make ADA the most decentralized cryptocurrency.

Ripple vs. Cardano: SEC Regulation

Both XRP and ADA prices are exposed to regulatory risks from future SEC actions and court decisions. Ripple has been in a battle with the SEC for years but scored three significant victories in 2023.

Ripple Labs seemed confident enough in the outcome of the case as it opened a new global headquarters in San Francisco in December. Meanwhile, in a new lawsuit against Kraken exchange filed in November, the SEC named ADA unregistered security, potentially adding some bumps ahead for token prices.