XRP vs Cardano: Comparing Two Centralised Blockchain Platforms

Explore the quickly evolving ecosystems of XRP and Cardano while comparing their unique approaches to scalability, governance, and adoption.

Introduction

Cryptocurrencies gained widespread attention and success by introducing the concept of decentralisation, with decentralised finance (DeFi) emerging as one of the most transformative applications. Bitcoin (BTC), the first cryptocurrency, was designed as a decentralised currency for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, and many subsequent blockchain projects have followed this vision.

However, while decentralisation has driven much of crypto’s innovation, centralisation also presents unique opportunities. By offering greater control and efficiency, more centralised blockchain models appeal to organisations seeking to streamline operations, enhance security, and unlock profit potential, particularly in institutional and enterprise contexts.

XRP (XRP) was created by a US-based technology company named Ripple in June 2012 to facilitate international payments between financial institutions, prioritising efficiency and regulatory compliance over decentralisation. The company doesn’t own the XRP Ledger (XRPL), but it controls who validates transactions through the ‘Unique Node List’ (UNL).

Similarly, Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Charles Hoskinson founded Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) with Jeremy Wood in September 2015 to support Cardano (ADA), a blockchain project guided by peer-reviewed research and evidence-based methods. IOHK doesn’t own Cardano, but it drives Cardano’s governance while helping clients utilise it. Cardano’s community took over governance following the activation of the ‘Plumin hard fork’ on 31 January 2025.

Let’s take a closer look at how these cryptocurrencies compare and contrast.

Key Differences Between XRP and ADA

XRP Overview

XRP connects financial institutions, payment providers, exchanges, and corporations to provide a frictionless experience for sending money globally. David Schwartz, Arthur Britto, and Jed McCaleb created XRPL, the blockchain that powers XRP, in 2012. Chris Larsen soon joined as a co-founder and CEO, and the group launched NewCoin to support the token in June 2012, rebranded it to OpenCoin in 2013, renamed it Ripple Labs, Inc., later that year, and finally shortened it to Ripple in late 2015.

McCaleb left in 2014 to start Stellar (XLM), a competing cryptocurrency. While many use ‘Ripple’ to refer to both the company and the cryptocurrency, they are separate entities, and Ripple requests the use of ‘XRP’ to describe the cryptocurrency to eliminate confusion.

The XRPL facilitates fast and efficient payment processing, completing transactions in as little as 3–5 seconds. XRP’s focus on speed and cost-efficiency has resulted in low transaction fees, averaging just US$0.0016 (as of April 2025), giving it a competitive advantage over many other tokens and payment processors. These advantages allow XRP to compete effectively with traditional payment systems and other cryptocurrencies.

Ripple has built strong partnerships with financial institutions like GMT Advanced Financial Services, DZ Bank, Lemonway, and BBVA Switzerland. These collaborations use Ripple’s blockchain technology to offer tokenisation services, enable cross-border transactions, and ensure compliance with financial regulations.

The RippleNet consolidation, launched in 2019, represents one of Ripple’s most significant innovations. This unified platform combines three earlier products: a real-time settlement system (xCurrent), a liquidity product (xRapid), and a payment API (xVia). By integrating these tools, XRP expedites payment processing, making it a prominent force in blockchain-based financial solutions.

Check out XRP’s current value and recent price trends.

Cardano Overview

Cardano uses a layered blockchain software stack designed for flexibility and scalability. While working on Ethereum, co-founder Charles Hoskinson found himself at odds with Vitalik Buterin over how to scale it. Hoskinson favoured a for-profit model funded by venture capital, while Buterin insisted on keeping Ethereum nonprofit. Hoskinson left Ethereum to launch IOHK with Jeremy Wood, bringing his vision of for-profit crypto to life, further differentiating Cardano by committing to the scientific method for blockchain development and upgrades.

Cardano’s architecture separates its functionality into two layers. The settlement layer serves as the unit of account for transactions, while the control layer handles smart contracts, providing support for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other decentralised applications (dapps). The control layer also incorporates identity recognition features, supporting compliance for dapps that require it.

IOHK plans Cardano’s evolution through eras named after famous academics. For example, the Shelley era began on 29 July 2020 and introduced staking, the Mary era began on 1 March 2021 and allowed for altcoins on Cardano’s network, and the Alonzo era started on 12 September 2021, introducing smart contracts and dapps to Cardano’s ecosystem. Cardano is currently in the Voltaire era.

Check out Cardano’s current value and recent price trends.

Ecosystem Comparison: XRP and ADA

XRP and Cardano’s Consensus Mechanisms

XRP and Cardano use fundamentally different consensus mechanisms that reflect their unique goals and design philosophies. Unlike most cryptocurrencies, the XRPL doesn’t have mining or staking. Instead, XRP uses a Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA) to reach consensus on transactions. FBA allows nodes to achieve agreement by forming overlapping groups of trusted participants, giving it flexibility to decide whom they trust and enabling for faster consensus.

To achieve this, XRP maintains the Unique Node List (UNL), consisting of ‘approved’ validators operated by businesses, universities, exchanges, and individuals. To reach a consensus, at least 80% of the UNL validators must approve a transaction before it is added to the ledger. While anyone can launch an XRP validator, only the company can approve them. This gives Ripple considerable control over XRP, leading to centralisation concerns. Advantages of the system include carbon neutrality, rapid transaction processing, and security.

Cardano uses a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism called Ouroboros, designed to balance energy efficiency, scalability, and decentralisation. The blockchain organises time into ‘epochs’, which are further divided into smaller time slots. During each time slot, the network randomly selects a stake pool to propose a new block. The probability of selection increases with the amount of ADA staked by the pool, and pools may solicit additional ADA from holders, called delegators, to increase their odds.

Both stake pools and delegators earn ADA rewards when they successfully propose a block. This system is faster, more energy efficient, and more democratic than the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism used by Bitcoin. However, Ouroboros is slower than many other PoS protocols.

XRP and Cardano’s Scalability

XRP and Cardano significantly differ in their transaction speeds and fee structures, reflecting their distinct priorities and use cases. XRP supporters claim the XRPL processes up to 1,500 transactions per second (tps), one of the highest speeds of any cryptocurrency. However, Ripple disputes this number, with CTO David Schwartz saying current infrastructure supports transaction speeds in the 300–500 tps range, though real-world data suggests it operates closer to 50 tps.

Cardano averages about 1.5 tps, with a recorded maximum of 11.6 and a theoretical cap of 18, which may compromise network functionality. Cardano also has a predictable fee structure of a + b (size), where a and b are constants defined by the protocol and size is the transaction size measured in bytes. This makes it easy for users to calculate transaction fees without worrying about variables like network congestion; but it gets expensive (0.17–0.8 ADA on average).

Tokenomics Comparison

XRP Use Cases

XRP, RippleNet’s native cryptocurrency, facilitates cross-border payments between financial institutions. Many XRP holders also treat it as a secure digital value store bought and sold on trustworthy platforms like Crypto.com. XRP may be swapped for fiat currencies like US dollars or other cryptocurrencies, and XRP holders pay transaction fees and interact with smart contracts created on federated sidechains, though other tokens are better known for dapps. Spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been proposed but lack regulatory approval as of this writing.

Acceptance as a Payment Method

Many merchants accept XRP payments, including Shopify, AirbrushCustoms (personalised T-shirts, hoodies, and hats), and HostMeNow (web-hosting services). XRP holders can also purchase gift cards to popular retailers, or use services like Crypto.com Pay to buy almost anything with cryptocurrency.

Cardano Use Cases

ADA is Cardano’s native token and acts as a digital value store, securing the network through staking and paying gas fees. ADA holders can enjoy access to the dapps available in Cardano’s ecosystem, but ADA’s lower liquidity may produce a higher spread when exchanging for fiat on platforms like Crypto.com. 

Acceptance as a Payment Method

Vendors accepting ADA payments include Morph Clothes (high-end men’s T-shirts), Mineshop (specialty computer hardware), and The Sun of Soul (beauty products). ADA can also be exchanged for popular gift cards and spent through services like Crypto.com Pay.

Key Pricing Moments

Cryptocurrencies experience frequent price fluctuations based on global economic trends, influencer activity, technology updates, rumours, and market forces. Below is a brief timeline of XRP’s and Cardano’s price histories.

XRP — Key Price Events

Cardano — Key Price Events

Performance and Market Metrics

XRP has a market capitalisation of around $120 billion as of this writing and a circulating supply of over 58 billion, with a cap of 100 billion. XRP also has inflationary tokenomics until the circulating supply is closer to the max supply. Demand for XRP has been high, with prices ranging from $2.00–$3.30 per token over recent months.

ADA has a market cap at just almost $22 billion as of this writing. It has a circulating supply of about 35.3 billion, with a cap of 45 billion tokens. ADA was fluctuating in the $0.60–$1.15 price range in recent months.

Developments and Roadmaps: XRP and ADA

XRP’s Roadmap

One significant project for Ripple is Ripple USD (RLUSD), a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar that launched in December 2024. RLUSD further streamlines cross-border payments between financial institutions since its value doesn’t fluctuate like other cryptocurrencies; its impact on XRP’s value is unclear. If RLUSD proves popular, Ripple’s other projects may benefit from it.

Another major piece of XRP’s roadmap is Project Clio, an API server that doesn’t have to connect to the XRPL’s P2P network. Instead, it pulls information from dedicated servers to handle API calls more efficiently, streamlining payments.

XRP’s Community

All cryptocurrencies depend on market sentiment for value, and social media has proven to be a strong indicator of a token’s prospects. Ripple has 3.1 million X followers and 381,000 Reddit followers as of this writing, suggesting a large community that might not think about it every day. Developers can turn to RippleX, a support network for XRPL developers, for guidance and advice on how to get started.

Cardano’s Roadmap

IOHK stepped down from day-to-day management in January 2025, allowing the Cardano community to govern the project through voting. Cardano’s current Voltaire era focuses on adding decentralisation features, and a treasury system funded by transaction fees to fund proposals approved by Cardano’s community is upcoming, with additional upgrades potentially announced at a later date. However, there’s no time frame for the network upgrades required to support voting (as of this writing).

Many blockchain protocols already have the decentralisation features Cardano is looking to add, and issues like slow transaction processing and high fees aren’t being addressed while decentralisation is the focus. Cardano’s commitment to evidence- and research-based development is admirable, but it also means upgrades take longer.

Cardano’s Community

Cardano has 1.4 million X followers and 721,000 Reddit followers as of this writing, indicating a smaller community than Ripple. Cardano developers have a separate, dedicated subreddit with 13,000 members as of this writing.

Conclusion

XRP and ADA have high supplies and a relatively centralised governance structure, putting them in direct competition. Ripple will maintain its influence over XRP for the foreseeable future, while IOHK strives towards Cardano’s decentralisation.

Crypto traders could choose either token since both have accessible price points and relatively limited price upside potential due to lack of scarcity. Developers might choose Cardano for its superior dapp potential. Merchants get relative price stability no matter which token they select.

Always research a cryptocurrency’s documentation, development team, tokenomics, and recent price trends before considering a purchase.

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