Best Buy in 2025: XRP (Ripple), Dogecoin, or Bitcoin?

The total value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation is currently $3.5 trillion, which is nearing the record high of $3.9 trillion that was set in December. Positive sentiment is returning to the financial markets after a rough start to 2025, but investors are also enthusiastic about a series of crypto-friendly policies recently enacted by President Donald Trump.

Ripple's XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE), and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) are three of the world's most popular cryptocurrencies for very different reasons, and each is benefiting from the pro-crypto Trump administration in unique ways.

Dogecoin was the best performer of the three in 2024 with a gain of 251%, but Bitcoin is the only one that continues to set new highs. Which one might be the best buy in the remainder of 2025? To me, the answer is clear.

The case for XRP: Ripple's regulatory troubles are done

Ripple is a financial technology company, and it designed a unique system called Ripple Payments that facilitates instant cross-border transactions. It eliminates the need for intermediaries by connecting banks with one another directly, which paves the way for immediate settlements.

Ripple created the XRP cryptocurrency to give banks an alternative to using fiat currencies within Ripple Payments. A cross-border XRP transaction costs a fraction of one cent (0.00001 XRP), so it's much cheaper than sending a domestic currency, which can incur fees of anywhere from 0.5% to 3% of the transaction amount when it's converted to the foreign currency.

XRP has a total supply of 100 billion tokens. About 58.6 billion are in circulation, and the other 41.4 billion are held by Ripple, which releases them gradually to meet demand from institutions.

Since that makes Ripple the sole issuer, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued the company in 2020 alleging XRP should be classified as a financial security, like a stock or a bond. Had the regulator won in court, Ripple might have been forced to change its business model and incur significant compliance costs.

The case was resolved mostly in Ripple's favor in August 2024, but the company was hit with a $125 million fine. The SEC appealed the decision, which threatened to tie the parties up in court for several more years, but everything changed when Trump was elected.

The SEC is now run by crypto advocate Paul Atkins, and the agency withdrew its appeal and settled its case against Ripple earlier this month. It even agreed to reduce the fine from $125 million to just $50 million.

The legal battle weighed heavily on the price of XRP, which is why the token is up more than 300% since Trump won last November.

The case for Dogecoin: Elon Musk, but his influence might be fading

Dogecoin was founded in 2013 by two friends as a joke. They were inspired by the "doge" meme, which was spreading across the internet at the time. Elon Musk has been a supporter of Dogecoin since 2019, but the token didn't really take off until 2021 when he promoted it more vocally on social media.

Musk even appeared on an episode of Saturday Night Live in May of that year, where he participated in a Dogecoin-themed comedy skit. The token soared to a record high of $0.73 that very night, but once it became clear that Musk didn't have a real plan to back up his social media banter, it collapsed. The crypto then lost more than 90% of its value by mid-2022, and it remained mostly little changed throughout 2023 and for most of 2024.

But it soared after the November election. Investors were feeling positive about Trump's pro-crypto policy proposals, but they were especially excited about Musk's potential involvement in the administration because he was a regular figure on the campaign trail. Trump went on to appoint Musk as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE for short), which is an initiative tasked with cutting spending to reduce the U.S. national debt.

The DOGE acronym is a clear nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency. But his support once again proved to be hollow -- there is still no indication that Dogecoin will play a concrete role in the DOGE project, and it has plunged by 50% from its recent 52-week high, leaving investors with a sense of déjà vu.

The case for Bitcoin: A strategic government reserve

Bitcoin is the world's largest cryptocurrency. Its market capitalization of $2.2 trillion accounts for more than half the $3.5 trillion total value of all coins and tokens in circulation. Unlike almost every other cryptocurrency, it continues to set new highs thanks to a set of unique qualities that make investors confident that it's a reliable store of value.

The crypto is completely decentralized, so it can't be controlled by any person, company, or government, and it's built on a verifiable and secure system of record called the blockchain. It also has a fixed supply of 21 million coins -- 19.8 million are in circulation already, and the remaining 1.2 million won't be fully mined until the year 2140.

Because of the token's decentralized nature, it doesn't fit the SEC's definition of a financial security. Therefore, not only has it avoided regulatory issues, but the agency has also approved dozens of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These let financial advisors and institutional investors own the cryptocurrency in a safe and regulated manner, opening up new sources of demand that could drive long-term upside.

Speaking of demand, Trump recently established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve that will initially store the 207,189 coins the government has seized from criminals. And with congressional approval, the U.S. Treasury could use the reserve to become an active buyer of Bitcoin one day, the same way it's a buyer of gold. That would almost certainly send the price soaring, especially if other governments choose to follow suit.

Image source: Getty Images.

The verdict

XRP has a legitimate use thanks to its role in the Ripple Payments network, which would normally drive demand for the token and support rising prices. However, banks don't have to use XRP -- they can benefit from instant cross-border transactions through Ripple Payments even if they use fiat currencies, so the success of the network won't necessarily drive value for the token.

That means XRP's future could rest on the whims of speculative investors rather than on organic demand. But almost no cryptocurrency is as speculative as Dogecoin. It was the world's first meme token, and it doesn't have any real-world purpose capable of supporting its long-term value. Therefore, it's definitely the least attractive investment in this bunch.

That leaves Bitcoin. It's trading at a new high of more than $111,000 as of this writing, whereas XRP and Dogecoin still haven't reclaimed their highs from 2018 and 2021, respectively. It continues to prove its reliability as a store of value thanks to the unique qualities I discussed earlier, and bullish catalysts like ETFs and the strategic reserve will only drive more enthusiasm among investors. Therefore, I think Bitcoin is the best buy in this group.

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Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.