[Digital Today reporter Yoonseo Lee] A claim has emerged that XRP rose about 23,500 percent over the past 10 years, outperforming gains in major assets such as bitcoin, gold, Tesla and Apple over the same period.

On May 16 (local time), blockchain outlet The Crypto Basic reported that lawyer Bill Morgan (빌 모건), known as an XRP supporter, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that XRP’s long-term returns outperformed all major assets.

The debate began after Bitcoin Magazine shared a table comparing returns by asset over the past 10 years. In that comparison, bitcoin was presented as having risen 17,240 percent since 2016. Tesla was tallied at 3,122 percent, Apple at 1,355 percent, Google at 1,015 percent, Amazon at 654 percent, the S&P 500 at 323 percent, and gold at 255 percent.

Morgan countered that adding XRP would put the return at as much as 24,000 percent. He cited estimates produced by xAI chatbot Grok (그록) that put the gain in the upper 23,000 percent range to around 24,000 percent.

As of now, XRP is priced at about $1.39. On May 16, 2016, XRP was about $0.006018, which implies a gain of about 23,500 percent. Using the same method, bitcoin works out to about $76,900 versus about $452.95 on May 16, 2016, indicating a rise of about 17,300 percent. Over that 10-year window alone, XRP’s gain was higher than bitcoin’s.

Some in the market also pushed back, questioning the comparison method itself. Some users said the figures reflected the choice of a starting point favorable to XRP. X user @TheyLiveYouDie criticised the comparison, saying XRP had risen to around $3.80 about 9 years ago but the current price remains well below that level. The user argued that even if gains are large from the 2016 low, investors who bought near the previous cycle high may still be sitting on losses.

Another user, @Encrypt_ed, argued that 2019 should be used as the starting point. The user said they bought XRP at around $3.40 around 2018 to 2019 and that returns remain negative despite believing in the asset’s technical potential.

Morgan countered that he did not arbitrarily set the comparison period, and had only added XRP to Bitcoin Magazine’s 10-year benchmark. As a result, the focus of the debate shifted from which cryptocurrency was superior to the point that performance assessments can vary widely depending on the chosen starting date.

The difference in long-term trends between bitcoin and XRP also came back into focus. XRP posted a higher gain when measured from its 2016 low, but bitcoin sustained a long-term upward trend and surpassed its prior record highs multiple times. XRP, by contrast, was more volatile and has yet to exceed its 2018 peak of $3.84.

Ultimately, the dispute shows that assessments can differ depending on which entry point is used, rather than on cumulative returns alone. For early entrants, XRP delivered large profits, but another view also exists that it is difficult to see investors who entered near later highs as being in a recovery phase.

Last 10 years$XRP at +23,000% to +24,000% beats them all combined https://t.co/wcJFoEDSS7 pic.twitter.com/blY2H2vRAW