Ripple (XRP) and Stellar (XLM) Are Trailing Bitcoin This Month. Which Catches Up First?
Bitcoin has pulled ahead while two of crypto's top payment coins struggle to keep pace, and the gap between them reveals a telling split in investor confidence, ETF momentum, and price resilience that could determine which coin moves first.
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Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) climbed by 8.4% over the 30 days leading up to October 15, 2026. In contrast, the two prominent payment cryptocurrencies, XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) and Stellar (CRYPTO:XLM), posted modest gains, with XRP up 1.3% and Stellar 1.8%. This raises the XRP vs. Stellar question of which coin might catch up to Bitcoin first.
Both XRP and Stellar rallied in September but later gave back those gains. XRP reached a high of $1.66 on September 23, while Stellar closed at $0.23 on September 28. Since then, both coins have experienced a gradual decline throughout October. With Bitcoin leading the way, it’s worth exploring which of these payment coins might close the distance first.
XRP Is 63% Below Its All-Time High, While Stellar Is 79% Below
Currently, XRP trades at $1.34, 63.2% below its all-time high of $3.65, reached in July 2025. In comparison, Bitcoin trades at 34.7% below its peak from October 2025, indicating that Bitcoin has managed to retain more of its gains from the last market cycle.
Stellar, on the other hand, trades at $0.18, about 78.9% below its record high of $0.88 set in January 2018. Stellar has not returned to that 2018 high in this market cycle, and many XRP holders who bought in at the January 2018 peak know the feeling.
However, over a longer timeframe, XRP shows more strength. Over the past 60 days, XRP has appreciated 34.2%, compared with Bitcoin’s 29.9% gain. Stellar, in contrast, increased by only 17%. Thus, XRP has outperformed Bitcoin over this two-month period, while Stellar has lagged behind.
XRP Benefits From ETF Investors While Stellar Lacks Similar Support
Jed McCaleb, a co-founder of both Ripple (the company behind XRP) and Stellar, initially launched these networks to provide fast and inexpensive cross-border payment solutions. However, XRP currently has an investment advantage that Stellar can’t match.
US spot XRP ETFs, which directly hold the coin and trade via brokerage accounts, reported net assets totaling $1.51 billion. On October 14, these funds saw inflows of $740,414, marking the only inflow among the four major-coin ETF groups that day. Although modest, the inflow came after three consecutive days with no flows.
Ripple has also been in the spotlight recently. On October 15, Cross River Bank in New Jersey integrated Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin—a token pegged to the US dollar—into its core banking operations. Ripple Prime, the company’s institutional brokerage division, also began offering swaps across more than 100 traditional asset markets on Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange. While neither development creates direct demand for XRP, they highlight Ripple’s ongoing activity in the financial sector.
Stellar Outperformed the Top 10 Coins for Six Months, but Its Momentum Is Dwindling
Despite its challenges, Stellar has a strong six-month performance record. Data from Elan Insights shows that XLM outperformed an index of the top 10 cryptocurrencies for nearly the entire last six months. By early June, XLM was up 71%, while the top-10 index was down 0.5%. Although Stellar still leads the index by about 9%, that lead has narrowed significantly since June.
Currently, Stellar appears weaker in the short term. XLM has dropped 15.9% over the last 14 days, compared with XRP’s 10.5% decline. This indicates that sellers have been more active with Stellar throughout October.
In XRP vs Stellar, Which Coin Could Catch Up to Bitcoin First?
Given the current landscape, XRP seems more likely to catch up to Bitcoin first. It benefits from ETF investors who added funds on October 14, it has outperformed Bitcoin over the previous 60 days, and Stellar’s earlier advantage over the top 10 coins is shrinking.
However, XRP’s ETF inflow is relatively small, and many recent headlines about Ripple don’t require anyone to buy the coin directly.
For XRP, the key milestone is regaining a close above $1.52, its October 4 close and about 13% above the current price, with a critical test at a daily close above the $1.66 September high—around 24% higher. If XRP drops below its September low of $1.25 (about a 7% decrease), it could allow Bitcoin to extend its lead. On the flip side, Stellar must close above $0.23, a 26% increase, while slipping below $0.17 could wipe out its remaining lead.
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Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst who's spent nearly a decade making blockchain understandable—no easy task when most whitepapers read like fever dreams. He writes for 24/7 Wall St., covering Bitcoin, altcoins, and crypto market analysis for investors. Before crypto, he was a tech writer (back when explaining "the cloud" was peak innovation). Since 2018, he's written for CoinTelegraph, Yahoo Finance, The Block, Cryptonews, Zypto, Rain, and more—basically anywhere people want crypto news without the headache. Sam runs MacLabs Marketing, a content agency for crypto brands tired of sounding like AI wrote their website. He also publishes free crypto education on his site for Web3 enthusiasts who think "gas fees" is a typo. When he's not writing or staring at charts, Sam's either: - Watching anime (currently convinced One Piece has better tokenomics than most altcoins) - At the gym sculpting himself into a Greek god - Listening to the music your mum warned you only bad boys listen to Connect: LinkedIn | Email | MacLabs Marketing
