Summary Bitcoin's closing price hit a new all-time high on January 21, 2025, finishing just above $106,000. Earlier in the week, bitcoin touched $109,000 during the day before retreating again. Ether's closing price had some movement this week but ended up finishing mostly flat. ETH is currently down ~1% year to date. XRP surged during the last few months of 2024 and has continued that momentum into 2025. XRP is currently up ~36% year to date. By Jennifer Nash This weekly update tracks some of the largest cryptocurrencies by market share: bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) and ether ( ETH-USD ). While both are considered to be high-risk when it comes to investing, the two have foundational differences that investors should know . We've also included XRP ( XRP-USD ), as it was one of the largest cryptocurrencies when this series began. According to Wikipedia , a cryptocurrency is "a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses cryptography to secure its transactions, to control the creation of additional units, and to verify the transfer of assets." Bitcoin Bitcoin was the world's first cryptocurrency and decentralized digital currency. The first bitcoin transaction occurred in early 2009 and has since grown worldwide. It is often considered a volatile asset, as seen in our first chart, but one can argue that it is also resilient . Bitcoin's closing price hit a new all-time high on January 21, 2025, finishing just above $106,000. Earlier in the week, bitcoin touched $109,000 during the day before retreating again. BTC is up ~12% year to date. Ether Ether is a cryptocurrency run on the Ethereum blockchain platform and was launched in July 2015. It has the second-largest market share, despite being the newest of the three discussed in this article. Ether's closing price had some movement this week but ended up finishing mostly flat. ETH is currently down ~1% year to date. XRP XRP, which is owned by Ripple, was launched in 2012 and was one of the larger cryptocurrencies for some time until new coins joined the market. XRP surged during the last few months of 2024 and has continued that momentum into 2025. XRP is currently up ~36% year to date. Bitcoin vs. Ether vs. XRP An index has been created in order to chart these three cryptocurrencies together, considering their significantly different pricing histories. The chart tells us which cryptocurrency's price has changed the most since November 9, 2017. At one point or another, all three have been at the top. At the time of writing, bitcoin is in the lead, just edging out XRP. On January 10th, 2024, the SEC approved spot bitcoin ETFs from a range of issuers such as Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF ( GBTC ), iShares Bitcoin Trust ( IBIT ), Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund ( FBTC ), ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF ( ARKB ), Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB), Coinshares Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund ( BRRR ). Here are some of the quick takeaways from the spot bitcoin ETF launch. On July 23rd, 2024, a handful of spot ether ETFs launched from a range of issuers such as Grayscale Ethereum Trust ( ETHE ), Franklin Ethereum ETF ( EZET ), Bitwise Ethereum ETF ( ETHW ), iShares Ethereum Trust ( ETHA ), Fidelity Ethereum ETF ( FETH ). Original Post Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.
