This 1 Accelerating Trend Could Drive XRP and Ethereum Higher and Higher

By Alex Carchidi – Mar 3, 2026 at 6:30AM ESTKey PointsA large volume of assets are expected to move onto blockchains for management during the next few years.Ethereum is the logical first stop for those assets to flow to.XRP is building an important edge that might make it the favorite in the long term.Tokenization is crypto's attempt to turn paperwork and creaky old databases into highly efficient software. Both Ethereum (ETH +1.53%) and XRP (XRP +0.76%) stand to gain quite a bit, assuming that tokenization continues to take off as many expect. Here's why this trend could send the prices of these coins soaring during the coming years. Image source: Getty Images. This is a small market with very big ambitions In a nutshell, asset tokenization means representing the ownership claims on traditional assets like stocks or bonds using tokens recorded on a blockchain. Those tokens can either be used solely for record keeping, or they can be used as tradeable contracts to make the underlying assets more readily transferable than they would be otherwise. Per some estimates, there could be as much as $30 trillion in tokenized assets by 2030. More reasonable estimates, like from Boston Consulting Group, suggest a total closer to $16 trillion in tokenized assets in the same time frame. But so far, the value actually sitting on public chains remains modest. As of March 2, there was about $25.9 billion in tokenized assets that can be traded, with Ethereum holding about $15.4 billion, or 59% of that total, and the XRP Ledger (XRPL) holding a far smaller share of $461 million. ExpandCRYPTO: ETHEthereumToday's Change(1.53%) $29.72Current Price$1966.75Key Data PointsMarket Cap$238BDay's Range$1923.84 - $2072.0052wk Range$1398.62 - $4946.05Volume28B So if the estimates described above are even remotely in the ballpark of being correct, there's a tremendous amount of growth in store, and the chains that are positioned to be the home for the influx of tokenized assets will be very likely to flourish. Here's why Ethereum and XRP are already in the right spots. Why Ethereum looks stronger now, and why XRP could catch up Ethereum is starting the race to capture tokenized asset inflows with scale on its side. Aside from the tokenized assets already on its chain, it has about $164.6 billion in stablecoins, and that's key because stablecoins are the checkout lane for everything else in on-chain finance. It also has a deep decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, with about $55 billion in total value locked (TVL) in DeFi applications. That means it can already support a basic workflow like using coins as collateral for borrowing large chunks of capital to make a purchase of an expensive tokenized asset, then selling that asset and repaying the loan down the line. But larger players might be hampered by the network's messy collection of third-party regulatory compliance solutions. In contrast, XRP's pitch for capturing tokenized assets is less about the depth of its markets today, and more about how it has the streamlined compliance features that banks and asset managers need to actually lawfully conduct on-chain activity. ExpandCRYPTO: XRPXRPToday's Change(0.76%) $0.01Current Price$1.36Key Data PointsMarket Cap$83BDay's Range$1.34 - $1.4152wk Range$1.14 - $3.65Volume3.3B The coin's issuer, Ripple, is also hard at work to build out its compliance toolset even more to further boost its appeal to financial institutions. The catch is that compliance features don't automatically create demand, they only incentivize it by offering a lower-friction path than it would experience elsewhere. Nonetheless, transaction costs on XRP tend to be lower than those on Ethereum, which could prove to be an edge. Looking forward, the biggest swing factor for the tokenized asset market is how regulation and standards will evolve. Currently, fragmented rules across jurisdictions hinder cross-border movement of tokenized assets, which makes the biggest forecasts about the market's size fairly speculative and somewhat hard to believe. If the trend toward tokenization accelerates, which both Ethereum and XRP are implicitly betting on, it will be because the efficiency benefits of tokenization lead to more widespread adoption, which will precipitate regulatory clarity where it's needed the most. And as of now, it's reasonable to expect things to pick up speed from here. So when you're building a crypto portfolio, treat tokenization as a driver of higher coin prices, especially for leaders like Ethereum and XRP. If the trend accelerates through 2030 as predicted, Ethereum is probably the safer play because it already hosts most of the activity. But don't count XRP out either -- it's smaller today, but it's focused on the players with the most capital, and they tend to move slowly.Read NextMar 3, 2026 •By Will EbiefungGot $500? 3 Reasons to Consider Buying XRP.Mar 2, 2026 •By Alex CarchidiBetter Cryptocurrency to Buy Now With $1,000 and Hold for 3 Years: XRP vs. EthereumMar 1, 2026 •By Keith NoonanXRP Plunges 26% As Crypto Market Faces Fresh HeadwindsMar 1, 2026 •By Alex Carchidi4 Reasons to Buy $2,500 of XRP (Ripple) and Hold It for at Least 5 YearsMar 1, 2026 •By Alex CarchidiBetter Cryptocurrency to Buy Now With $1,000 And Hold For 3 Years: XRP vs. BitcoinFeb 28, 2026 •By Will Ebiefung2 Top Cryptocurrencies to Buy With $100 Right NowAbout the AuthorAlex Carchidi is a contributing Motley Fool healthcare and cryptocurrency analyst covering biotech, pharma, cannabis, and digital asset companies. Previously, Alex was a bench scientist and science writer at several biopharma companies and began his career as a researcher at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Boston University and a master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in finance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.TMFacarchidiX@alexcarchidiStocks MentionedXRPCRYPTO: XRP$1.36(+0.76%)+$0.01EthereumCRYPTO: ETH$1,966.75(+1.53%)+$29.72*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.