Is Ethereum or XRP The Better Altcoin Buy For October?

Ethereum and XRP are ranked #2 and #3, respectively, among cryptocurrencies by market cap or the combined weight of their balances.

On Tuesday, Sept. 23, Ethereum’s total market capitalization clocked in at USD $506 billion. Meanwhile, Ripple Labs’ XRP tokens balanced markets at $172 billion.

For comparison, the world’s #1-ranked cryptocurrency by market cap was Bitcoin, clocking $2.25 trillion.

Ethereum vs. Ripple Tokens: Sept. Market Cap

But even more interestingly, if Ethereum were a US corporation, it would rank #2,0 ahead of Exxon Mobil and right behind Netflix.

That’s according to data from CompaniesMarketCap retrieved on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Ethereum outranked by market cap Bank of America (#27, $387 billion), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (#31, $342 billion), and Wells Fargo (#41, $271 billion).

On the other hand, XRP outweighed BlackRock stocks (#98, $177 billion), SoftBank (#99, $177 billion), and Charles Schwab (#103, $171 billion).

Technicals: ETH vs. XRP Moving Averages (9/23)?

The price moving average for ETH and XRP is a tool that returns the average daily price for a trailing period of days, such as 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, and 200.

TradingView’s moving average trade recommendation tool regards today’s average spot price of a currency on crypto exchanges as a leading indicator.

So when it is greater than today’s moving average value, the tool recommends, “Buy.” When it is lower, the tool recommends selling.

On Tuesday, Sept. 23, the 20 — 200-day MAs for Ethereum were all below the day’s average trading price, returning a “Buy” recommendation.

By comparison, XRP showed some cracks in its wall of “Buy” recommendations for the 20-day Exponential MA, 50-day Simple MA, and recency-weighted 9-day “Hull” MA.

With these values above XRP’s price on Tuesday, it appears from a glance at TradingView that the market may be pivoting to a correction.

That said, both cryptocurrencies went through a considerable correction on Monday morning, September 22nd, when the entire market crashed and liquidated more than $1.5 billion worth of leveraged positions.

ETH vs. New XRP ETFs?

The home stretch of September will be an interesting time for altcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) sold by US government SEC-regulated Wall Street issuers.

Ethereum has seen ETF inflows pick up dramatically during the month, but sustained massive losses in the first half of it, according to data posted by Farside Investors.

While XRP rallied over September on the way to a Sept. 18 debut of the first XRP ETF, markets pivoted that day to mark it a “sell the news” event.

Also, some traders may have dumped spot XRP for ETFs.

Ether prices did the same and corrected steeply from Ethereum’s ETF debut on July 23, 2024, until Sept. 6, 2024. If XRP respondс to its new ETFs the way the Ether ETF cycle did, then it could slump well into October. If Ether ETF buyers remain bullish, that would give the cryptocurrency the advantage.