Ripple vs Dogecoin: Which Crypto Should You Buy In 2023

DOGE and XRP are famous cryptocurrencies. But is DOGE a better investment?

Last Updated January 6th 2022
18 Min Read

Ripple and Dogecoin are two very different cryptocurrency projects that have both demonstrated significant resilience over the years. As the market continues to go from strength to strength, we thought it was a good time to revisit both projects and see how they measure up against each other.

Ripple is known as the bankers cryptocurrency, as its main use case is to facilitate international transfers between major financial institutions. Dogecoin, on the other hand, is somewhat the opposite, having been dubbed ‘the people’s crypto’ by Elon Musk, it is intended to be a viable means of payment for everyday retail transactions.

In recent months, both coins have demonstrated their potential for significant price growth - which is quite remarkable in both cases, given that Dogecoin was started in 2013 as a parody and Ripple was dogged by regulatory issues in the latter half of 2020.

So what can we expect from these projects? Do they represent a good opportunity for long term investment? In the following Ripple vs Dogecoin analysis, we’ll make the case for both projects and consider whether they may in fact make perfect bedfellows in a diversified cryptocurrency investment portfolio. 

Dogecoin vs Ripple - The Key Differences

As we’ve mentioned, Dogecoin and Ripple are hugely different projects - both in their objectives and in how they work. There are some superficial similarities: both use blockchain technology, both offer a means of value exchange and both tokens can be bought and sold on most major cryptocurrency exchanges around the world.

Ripple and Dogecoin, two of the best cryptocurrencies, have been mainstays of many investors’ portfolios. Even the lay investor knows about them, which is why they’re perhaps the two cryptocurrencies our trading-community friends and students most frequently ask us about.

Specifically, what they ask are: What is the main difference between Dogecoin and Ripple? Is Dogecoin a better investment than Ripple? Which is the best investment going forward? With that in mind, we thought it might be useful to break it down with DOGE vs. XRP comparison content.

But what we are interested in here is how the projects differ, so let’s take a closer look at each project.

Ripple

Background

Ripple is often referred to as the ‘Bankers’ Crypto’ as it was set up to make international currency transfers faster and cheaper for financial institutions. The project differs from many cryptocurrencies in that it is owned and operated by Ripple Lab - which has led many to claim it is not actually decentralised - something Ripple Lab denies. 

Launched in 2016, Ripple is fast and transaction fees are low. The idea is that it can offer an alternative to the current standard for international currency transfers: SWIFT. The advantages here are probably obvious, by using XRP as a common medium for exchange, financial institutions would not need to buy and sell different currencies at high cost, they can simply convert the cryptocurrency into the relevant fiat currency as and when required. 

An important consideration for anyone looking to invest in Ripple is regulation. The project famously ran into trouble in the latter half of 2020 when the SEC ruled that XRP had to be traded as a security, rather than a currency. This lead to Ripple being widely de-listed by cryptocurrency exchanges.

Naturally, this had a negative effect on price and in September many had written XRP off. However, the project has shown remarkable resilience and appears to have weathered the storm. 

Transactions and Speed

Ripple uses a consensus ledger and series of approved network servers to validate transactions. It does not rely on mining/proof-of-work so can be much faster than the likes of Bitcoin and indeed Dogecoin. Not only can the platform process some 1,500 transactions per second, but its transaction costs are also incredibly low.

One noteworthy point regarding Ripple transactions is that many of the trusted nodes on the network are actually owned by Ripple Labs, this means that effectively the company has control over many of the validators, which has led many to suggest that the network isn’t truly decentralised. 

However, Ripple has proven to be a highly secure network and when it comes to its primary use case, it may not do any harm for a company to be accountable for the integrity of the network. It certainly doesn’t appear as though Ripple Labs have impeded XRP’s price growth. 

Supply and Demand

Another interesting feature of Ripple is that to open a wallet you need to add a reserve of XRP that is effectively taken out of circulation. This means that XRP becomes more scarce as accounts are opened. The token is also burned off when transactions are made, which further contributes to scarcity. 

New XRP is released into the Ripple ecosystem from Ripple Labs. Up to 1 billion tokens are made available every month, to support business activities on the network. Any tokens that remain unused are then added back into escrow. The mechanism has again drawn criticism from cryptocurrency purists who say Ripple Labs have too much control over the network, but the approach seems to be working well so far for the project. 

Read Also: Should You Buy Ripple?

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Dogecoin

Background

Dogecoin has an almost mythic status in some corners of the cryptocurrency community. Originally set up to satirise the industry and the investor hype surrounding Bitcoin, little was expected of Dogecoin when it launched in 2013, with its now-infamous Shiba Inu mascot marking out its meme credentials. 

Despite its lighthearted beginnings, Dogecoin is a legit cryptocurrency with a solid infrastructure that was largely based on Litecoin. It uses the Scrypt algorithm for its proof-of-work consensus mechanism, which is faster and lower cost than the SHA256 used by the likes of Bitcoin.

More recently, Dogecoin has emerged as arguably the most fashionable cryptocurrency on the market with a famously loyal community. As such, DOGE has been subject to several significant price surges and has forced investors to consider new factors when appraising cryptocurrency assets - not least the power of online communities to spark bull markets. 

Transactions and Speed

Dogecoin can’t compete with Ripple when it comes to transaction speeds. The network has a block creation time of around one minute and can process anywhere between 40 - 70 transactions per second. 

Dogecoin relies on a fairly unremarkable proof-of-work system, which is looking increasingly more dated as many of the top cryptocurrencies are either proof-of-stake or plan to switch across in the near future. PoW is seen as being less scalable and more resource-intensive than PoS, which could harm DOGE’s chances of becoming a commercial-scale payment option in future. 

From a technical standpoint, Dogecoin isn’t setting any pulses racing and the reality is that its success will largely be decided by whether or not the community following the coin can build any genuine momentum. Its transaction speeds are adequate, but PoW has come under fire recently and this could seriously harm DOGE’s longevity. 

Supply and Demand

Dogecoin does not have an inbuilt deflationary mechanism like Bitcoin or Litecoin. In fact, in order to better mimic fiat currency, it is actually an inflationary coin, with new DOGE released into the ecosystem at a maximum rate of 5 billion per year. 

The idea here is that, rather than increasing scarcity, there is always enough DOGE in circulation for it to be used as a means of retail payment for the every day consumer. It also means, in theory, that there is always adequate rewards for Dogecoin miners maintaining the network. 

Check Out: How To Make (Or Lose) Money With Dogecoin

buy dogecoin

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

Dogecoin vs Ripple: Which Is The Better Investment?

It’s probably fair to say that Ripple has more prospects as a financial solution. In theory, it offers banks and financial institutions a much more efficient and cost-effective means of transferring funds internationally and, if institutions start to embrace it on a large scale, Ripple could become a much more stable investment than many other cryptocurrencies on the market. 

Dogecoin on the other hand has very little to distinguish it from other value-exchange blockchains other than its notoriety and widespread media coverage. Of course, we have seen how these can have a significant effect on its price, but many investors might prefer something a little more tenable.

To weigh up Dogecoin vs Ripple from an investment perspective, we need to look at a few key factors. 

Ripple Vs Dogecoin: Price History

In order to formulate a Ripple or Dogecoin forecast, we first need to take a look bac at previous price performance. Not only is this used to inform future predictions, but it also tells us how each coin has responded to market forces in the past. 

XRP

Like many cryptocurrencies, XRP’s price chart remained fairly flat when looking at its first 18 months or so. It wasn’t until 2017 that a single XRP token eclipsed the US dollar in value, after a few big names in the financial world expressed interest in the project. XRP would eventually surge to an all-time high of $3.40 in January 2018.

That was before the now infamous ‘bursting’ of the crypto bubble, which saw prices go into steep decline across the board in the second half of 2018. XRP dropped as low as $0.27 during this time but had picked up to around $0.50 a year later. 

Ripple looked stronger going into 2020 but was then hit by a double whammy of the COVID pandemic shortly followed by the aforementioned SEC ruling. These events saw XRP slump to $0.21 in January 2021, before the token managed a surprising recovery.

In the first market upswing of the year, XRP reached around $0.62 sinking only slightly in March. Come April, Ripple soared to $1.84 during a market-wide bull and despite a significant valley in its price chart before the end of the month, went into May trading at around $1.60. Things cooled throughout July and August, with Ripple sinking to a low of $0.53, but September saw XRP on the up again, hitting $1.39 in the first week of the month. 

At the time of writing, XRP was down to an even $0.75. 

Dogecoin

Dogecoin’s previous price movement differs from many other projects, which is hardly surprising, given the nature of the project. The token launched at minimal value, but quickly made a name for itself after seeing a price surge of around 300% just two weeks or so after launching. 

Dogecoin didn’t hold on to this success however, and within a few weeks it had slipped back to being worth just fractions of a cent. The next major movement for DOGE came in January 2018, when prices suddenly surged to $0.013 - hardly big numbers but certainly a substantial return for investors who had bought DOGE at $0.0002 just a year earlier. 

Throughout 2019 and much of 2020 DOGE slipped back into relative obscurity, mostly fluctuating between $0.0025 and $0.0030 and rarely hitting the headlines enough to generate investor attention. 

In 2021, however, Dogecoin’s fortunes changed and there were several weeks when the original meme-coin was rarely out of the news. The most notable period was shortly after the notorious Gamestop saga. After the remarkable price surges of the beleaguered games retailer, the Dogecoin Reddit community decided to try and create its own hype train. The campaign received a boost when Elon Musk tweeted a few positive comments and DOGE went from $0.004 to $0.082 in a matter of days. 

After this, Dogecoin firmly established its reputation as the ‘people’s crypto’ and found itself caught up in the subsequent crypto market upswings. The token reached an all-time high of $0.73 in May, marking a staggering increase of almost 18,000% year-on-year. 

At the time of writing, DOGE has settled to a trading price of $0.15.

Ripple Vs Dogecoin: Future Predictions

If we are considering Ripple vs Dogecoin from an investment perspective, then it goes without saying that it's future price movements we are interested in. Of course, no one can say for sure how an asset’s price will move, but by noting some price predictions from top crypto analysts, we can at least build an idea of what’s expected of each token. 

Ripple

Despite Ripple’s tangles with the SEC being far from over, it seems the project has shaken off investor concerns and many analysts are predicting bright things for its future.  DigitalCoinPrice, for example, sees fairly substantial growth coming Ripple’s way in the coming years. Going into December 2022, it expects XRP to be trading at around $1.10.

Elsewhere, WalletInvestor has made a similar Ripple price prediction. Its technical analysis has XRP trading at $1.00 in January 2022, before declining slightly in February/March. However, the summer Ripple is expected to bounce back and close in on $1.70 per token before the year is out. By December 2023, WalletInvestor suggests that XRP could be trading as high as $2.41. 

TradingBeasts is also pointing to growth for XRP. It has the token at an average trading price of around $1.30 in December 2022.

Given the optimism of the above XRP price predictions, it would certainly seem that the threat from the SEC debacle isn’t expected to harm Ripple too much in the immediate future. 

Read More: Ripple Price Predictions

Dogecoin

Dogecoin is arguably a tougher token for analysts to pin down when it comes to forecasts, as its success depends largely on its community of supporters, which is inevitably difficult to predict. However, that hasn’t stopped many from predicting a positive future ahead for DOGE.

DigitalCoinPrice sees DOGE doubling in value in the opening months of 2022. According to its technical analysis, Dogecoin will then continue to grow throughout the year, before stalling in the winter months. However, by summer 2023, DOGE is expected to have recovered well and be trading at an estimated $0.27 by the end of the year.  

According to TradingBeasts, we can expect to see Dogecoin up by around 80% come December 2022, with an average trading price of $0.27. Growth is then expected to continue, albeit at a fairly subdued rate, and DOGE is likely to be trading at a potential high of around $0.39 come 2025. 

Finally, WalletInvestor sees DOGE stalling throughout much of 2022, but making more significant gains going into 2023. It has the token valued at around $0.60 by April of that year, then continuing to rise over the summer before going into 2024 at a potential high of $0.65.

Don't Miss: Dogecoin Price Predictions

Dogecoin Vs Ripple: What the Experts Say

Expert opinions should not form the basis of an investment strategy, but they are worth checking out to get an idea of what industry in general makes of particular assets. 

Dogecoin has proved popular with quite a few big names. Most notable is, of course, Elon Musk, who has at various times courted controversy with his cryptic tweets that appear to support DOGE - “release the DOGE” being among the most recent. In addition to Musk’s comments, Dogecoin has also received support from rapper Snoop Dog and KISS rockstar-turned-investor, Gene Simmons. 

Ripple isn’t without its supporters either, although they might be seen as slightly less colourful than those of DOGE. The biggest name behind Ripple is probably banking giant Santander, but several prominent analysts, including Kaleo and Vorto Trading, have speculated that projects like Ripple may one day replace SWIFT. 

“blockchain has the potential to offer a bright future for cross-border payments and banks may start to prioritise blockchain strategies in the next few years,” said Vorto Trading.  

Ripple vs. Dogecoin Conclusion: Is XRP A Better Investment Than DOGE?

Ripple has many benefits over Dogecoin. It's more versatile, has better technology, and has far more real-world applications.

Compared to Ripple, Dogecoin is relatively cheap, making it much more accessible to investors with a smaller bankroll At the current valuations. And given the technology's potential and impressive list of backers, investing in both DOGE and XRP now is a chance to buy low and sell high in the future.

Dogecoin Vs Ripple: Conclusion

It’s probably fairly obvious by now that there are very few similarities between Ripple and Dogecoin. In fact, it’s unlikely that any investors will seriously be weighing up one token against the other when it comes to building a portfolio.

Ripple is probably the safer bet in the long-term. Despite some regulatory issues, it is the leading project when it comes to international funds transfer and if uptake of cryptocurrency by major institutions continues as predicted, then Ripple coil be well placed to deliver the service they need, which in turn could see XRP grow significantly in value. 

However, investors shouldnt be too quick to write Dogecoin off. It has more than demonstrated its longevity, having entered the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap some eight years after its launch. With many celebrity backers, it’s highly possible that another DOGE price surge could happen in the coming years.

So there we have it. If you’re looking for a long term investment, then Ripple is probably your better option. Alternatively, if you’re prepared to take on a little more risk, DOGE has the potential to yield big short-term gains. Ultimately, both could have a place in a well-balanced cryptocurrency portfolio. 

How To Invest In Ripple And Dogecoin In 2022

If you want to add either Ripple or Dogecoin to your investment portfolio, then we’d highly recommend checking out eToro. Not only is it one of the most widely recognised names in the industry, but its proprietary trading platform is simple to use whilst offering all the tools you need to manage your positions. 

You’ll also find that eToro has plenty of information on numerous other cryptocurrencies, as well as guides on certain aspects of trading. As such, the platform offers the ideal place to start building your crypto portfolio. 

eToro – The Best Platform To Buy Cryptocurrencies 

eToro have proven themselves trustworthy within the Crypto industry over many years – we recommend you try them out.

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

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Ripple vs Dogecoin - FAQ

Is Dogecoin a better buy than Ripple?

Dogecoin has been one of the surprising success stories of 2021 and remains one of the most popular cryptocurrencies on the market. However, it would be difficult to make the case that its a better buy than Ripple, as both have the potential to yield returns. Its probably fair to say that Ripple is a better long term buy, whereas DOGE arguably has a better chance of significant breakout. 

Can Dogecoin double my money in 2023?

Dogecoin is always capable of sudden price runs, but most analysts are expecting things to stay quiet in the run-up to 2023. However, investing now could see returns of up to 30%, according to some Dogecoin price predictions. 

Where can I buy Ripple?

Ripple was widely delisted after the SEC trouble last September, but now many exchanges have started adding it back to their books. If you’re looking to buy XRP, then we’d recommend checking out eToro. 

Which crypto is likely to explode in 2023?

Looking into 2023, it’s difficult to see which tokens will dominate. Ripple is certainly a contender if banks and financial institutions consider to show interest. Alternatively, projects like Dogecoin may stay in the limelight if public interest keeps up. 

Can Dogecoin or Ripple support NFTs?

Neither Dogecoin nor Ripple have a platform that can support NFTs, so this is one aspect of the market that both will miss out on. However, it should be bourne in mind that both were set up for other reasons and they still have plenty of potential to deliver on their original remits.