XRP surged from around $0.50 in late 2024 to above $3.00 in early 2025. Yet it has been pulling back and trading sideways as it shifts strategy toward custody, treasury services, and prime brokerage aimed at institutions rather than retail.
This leaves behind a significant addressable market that the Digitap ($TAP) crypto presale is poised to capture. Analysts have cited $TAP as one of the best altcoins to buy this January due to its innovative omni-bank model and unique market positioning.
Historically, many of the best cryptos to buy have been found in the payments sector, an industry that Digitap is disrupting. If it continues to gain adoption, it could outperform XRP’s current price of $2.
Ripple’s Institutional Pivot And XRP Price Action
XRP’s dramatic rise to above $3 in early 2025 followed months of range-bound price action, reflecting strong momentum. But after the peak, XRP began to consolidate lower. This shift highlights a familiar pattern seen in many extended rallies, where swift gains are followed by months and even years of consolidation as the hype settles. On a monthly basis, XRP is down 6.32%.
Ripple is also moving away from the retail market. It has completed key acquisitions that build infrastructure for institutional clients, including prime brokerage and digital asset custody offerings that cater to hedge funds, traditional finance firms, and corporate treasuries.
Despite these acquisitions, the price has not budged. Moreover, it further cements Ripple’s reputation as a corporate coin rather than a retail-focused payments solution. This limits the total addressable market significantly, mainly to a far smaller pool of corporations and institutions.
It remains to be seen whether Ripple’s full institutional pivot will have positive or negative price implications. But it is down on a monthly and yearly basis, and will likely need more time to consolidate prior gains. Ripple Labs is also known to hold around 50% of XRP tokens, which has been criticised as a key centralization feature that goes against the grain of decentralized currencies.
Digitap’s Practical Utility Versus Infrastructure Plays
Digitap is a live crypto to fiat omni-bank aimed at the retail and small business market. It can be used for deposits, withdrawals, swaps, payments, transfers, invoicing, and even payroll. The ecosystem has huge practical utility and allows for an easy connection between fiat and crypto banking through a single, user-controlled account.
A tiered KYC approach allows for a mix of immediate access and legal compatibility. This means that Digitaps target market is enormous, consisting of billions of globally unbanked and millions of expats, digital nomads, and remote work professionals. As the product is already live on Android and iOS, anyone can download the app and set up their account in minutes, with no geo-restrictions and zero onboarding friction.
By delivering functional services today and locking in early users, Digitap positions itself to benefit from broader market uptrends. At the same time, XRP’s evolution into institutional infrastructure could go either way. But it will likely take many years for benefits to be reflected in price, and the current trends point away from traditional banking, not towards it.
Could $TAP Outperform Ripple’s $2?
Tap is currently priced at $0.0399, and it will rise at each subsequent round before it lists on a major exchange (possibly Binance or Coinbase) at $0.14. At its current level, it would need about a 50x price increase to hit ~$2.0 and surge past Ripple. This is not out of the question given its USPs. Digitap has already seen $3.2M of smart money investment in Q4, 2025, and has already delivered a working product.
It also offers a 50% platform profit redistribution, including users in profit sharing via 124% staking APY and token burning to promote price appreciation. Users can spend at Visa terminals across the globe and receive cashback directly into their accounts. Large-cap networks like Ripple, focused on settlements for banking institutions, cannot provide these offerings to the retail market.
Ripple also has a history of regulatory challenges, which could re-emerge at any time. Its focus on custody, treasury, and prime brokerage reflects a maturing strategy that does not guarantee short or even medium term price performance. Digitap’s journey, on the other hand, is rooted in delivering usable products to end users now.
Its omni-bank platform lets individuals and businesses manage both crypto and fiat in one place, making it more immediately relevant to everyday financial activity. For investors seeking altcoins to buy with immediate utility, it has more appeal compared to institutional tokens.
The Digitap Crypto Presale To Dominate Payments?
For investors seeking altcoins to buy that could deliver outsized returns, there’s a strong chance that $TAP will shoot past $2. It has huge market relevance as a functioning payments application, with a heavily discounted crypto presale token. If it gains adoption, it could become a staple in the payments industry, competing with the likes of Wise or Revolut.
Ripple might do well in the institutional space. But the retail and small business market is more likely to be dominated by Digitap, which could make it one of the best cryptos to buy this January.
