Crypto trading is in full swing. The price of Bitcoin has risen since election night and briefly flirted with $100,000. Investors are optimistic about a better regulatory environment under President-elect Donald Trump, as well as a lower interest rate environment in which cryptocurrencies have previously performed well.

However, Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency that has seen gains. It is not uncommon for other cryptocurrencies to follow Bitcoin’s example as it is a pioneer for the industry. Dogecoin (DOGE 9.14%) And XRP (XRP -8.33%) did exactly that, and both rose after the election, outperforming Bitcoin.

Now that the industry is in full swing, which is the better buy?

Dogecoin price data from YCharts

Dogecoin: The first meme token

Software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer invented Dogecoin as a joke in 2013, in the early days of cryptocurrency. They based the token on a meme of a Shiba Inu dog.

But to their surprise, their joke became an instant hit – they talked about creating a currency out of thin air. Dogecoin rose to prominence during the meme stock and crypto frenzy during the brunt of the pandemic, as celebrities and tech gurus like Elon Musk embraced and even bought the token.

Many believe that Dogecoin has no real use other than for blockchain payments, which almost every cryptocurrency offers. The supply of tokens is unlimited, but there is a fixed reward of 10,000 Doge for each new block. One of Bitcoin’s big selling points is its limited supply, which many believe makes it a potential hedge against inflation.

One thing Dogecoin has done undeniably well is leverage the ability to create a community and go viral. This is probably the main reason why the token has a market capitalization of over $59 billion and is the seventh largest cryptocurrency in the world. Celebrities like Musk and Mark Cuban have adopted the token and allowed Doge payments for their various businesses.

Having Musk and his over 206 million followers on board on X is a powerful marketing tool. When Musk tweets something about Dogecoin on X, it usually becomes a catalyst for the token.

XRP: Designed for cross-border payments

While all cryptocurrencies can theoretically process cross-border payments, the Ripple company developed XRP specifically for this use case. XRP can process transactions in three to five seconds and handle over 1,500 transactions per second, making it ideal for commercial use. Additionally, Ripple, the company behind XRP, has pre-mined 100 billion tokens and uses a consensus protocol instead of the mining process to validate transactions. This makes the token more energy efficient and incurs fewer fees for each transaction.

Although 100 billion is a large number, it is still a fixed amount, making it a better hedge against inflation than Dogecoin. XRP could also be a candidate to become a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF), which would increase the token’s liquidity and exposure. Several companies have taken initial steps to start the ETF process and XRP recently started trading Robinhood.

XRP has also come into the spotlight in recent years, but not in the way it would like. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Ripple and XRP founders Christian Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse for selling XRP as an unregistered security in 2013. The case had far-reaching implications for the crypto sector as the SEC and stakeholders argued over regulatory jurisdiction over crypto.

A federal judge has already ruled in favor of Ripple, but the SEC appealed parts of the decision earlier this year. However, with SEC Chief Gary Gensler stepping down once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, the litigation could conclude sooner than expected.

What to buy?

While I don’t want to deny Dogecoin’s ability to appreciate in a bullish crypto market, I still like XRP better. The token has a better use case, a fixed supply, in my opinion, and is more likely to see spot XRP ETFs – not that Dogecoin couldn’t get those too at some point. I also think that the lawsuit has created an overhang in the price of XRP over the past few years, which should change soon.