Stellar Lumens (XLM) and Ripple (XRP) are considered strong competitors because of their similar offerings. They are not exactly the same but both the platforms are considered to be in a race. Stellar vs. Ripple debate is an ongoing one. Let’s delve into what both these projects are and who has a better future projection.

Ripple (XRP)

Ripple (XRP) was launched in 2013. The cryptocurrency had been operating in the top ten ranked in terms of market capitalization. The cryptocurrency has a price of $1.13, at the time of writing with the price having decreased by 15% in the past week. The year-to-date returns on the cryptocurrency are at $413%. Ripple is tackling the problems that the global payment ecosystem is facing currently. It aims to enable banks and other financial institutions to make international payments fast, cheap, and more efficiently.

Stellar (XLM)

Stellar (XLM) is operating at a price level of $0.47 with a 28% decrease in the past seven days, at the time of writing. XLM coin is ranked at sixteenth in terms of capitalization. Stellar has 273% year to date returns. Stellar and Ripple are considered strong competitors because they both target the same niche – increasing the efficiency of the global payment ecosystem. The difference in both the networks is the target audience – while Ripple is aimed at banks and other major financial institutions, Stellar Lumens targets the average person. Stellar also focuses more on the financial inclusion of less developed countries.

Who will win the race?

Ripple and Stellar both have private nodes without mining being allowed, incorporates distributed ledger technology and provides instantaneous transactions for the global payment system. Both Ripple and Stellar are unique in their own ways. Ripple has a higher market ranking with partnerships with many banking behemoths including the Bank of America, Royal Bank of Canada. Stellar has a partnership with the tech giant IBM.

Ripple has its supply capped at 100 billion coins. Initially, Stellar Lumens also had a supply of 100 billion with inflationary mechanism; however, that was ended and now Lumens have an approximate supply of 50 billion. And the golden rule of economics states the lesser the supply, the greater the demand.

The future of Ripple (XRP) is also based to a large extent on the SEC lawsuit going on with the foundation which alleges the firm had been raising funds through the sale of XRP as an unregistered security.

Wallet Investor places Stellar Lumens at a price of $0.975 after a year and at $2.241 after five years while the projections for Ripple XRP are at $1.662 in one year and at $2.751 in five years. Digital Coin Price predicts Stellar to be at $1.61 in 2028 while Ripple is predicted to be operating at a price level of $5.17.