The total value of all circulating cryptocurrencies is now $3.5 trillion, nearing the record high of $3.9 trillion set in December. Positive sentiment is returning to the financial markets after a rocky start to 2025, but investors are also very excited about a series of cryptocurrency-friendly policies just issued by President Donald Trump.

Ripple's XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE), and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) are the three most popular cryptocurrencies in the world for very different reasons, and each has benefited in unique ways from the Trump administration's support for cryptocurrencies.

Dogecoin is the best-performing coin among the three in 2024 with a 251% increase, but Bitcoin is the only coin that continues to reach new highs. Which coin could be the best buy choice for the remainder of 2025? For me, the answer is clear.

XRP: Ripple's Regulatory Troubles Have Ended

Ripple is a financial technology company that has designed a unique system called Ripple Payments, facilitating instantaneous cross-border transactions. This system eliminates the need for intermediaries by directly connecting banks, paving the way for immediate payments.

Ripple created the cryptocurrency XRP to provide banks with an alternative to using fiat currency in Ripple Payments. A cross-border XRP transaction costs only a fraction of a cent (0.00001 XRP), making it much cheaper than sending domestic currency, which can incur fees ranging from 0.5% to 3% of the transaction amount when converting to foreign currency.

XRP has a total supply of 100 billion tokens. Approximately 58.6 billion are in circulation, and the remaining 41.4 billion are held by Ripple, which releases them gradually to meet demand from institutions.

Because this makes Ripple the sole issuer, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued the company in 2020, alleging that XRP should be classified as a financial security, similar to stocks or bonds. If the regulator wins in court, Ripple may be forced to change its business model and incur significant compliance costs.

The lawsuit was largely resolved in favor of Ripple in August 2024, but the company had to pay a fine of $125 million. The SEC appealed this decision, threatening to bind the parties in court for many more years, but everything changed when Trump was elected.

The SEC is now led by cryptocurrency supporter Paul Atkins, and the agency has withdrawn its appeal and settled the lawsuit against Ripple earlier this month. They even agreed to reduce the fine from $125 million to just $50 million.

The legal battle has severely impacted the price of XRP, which is why this token has increased by more than 300% since Trump won the election last November.

Dogecoin: Elon Musk, But His Influence May Be Fading

Dogecoin was founded in 2013 by two friends as a joke. They were inspired by the 'doge' meme that was trending on the internet at that time. Elon Musk has supported Dogecoin since 2019, but the token did not really take off until 2021 when he promoted it more publicly on social media.

Musk even appeared in an episode of Saturday Night Live in May of that year, where he participated in a comedic skit about Dogecoin. The token surged to a record high of $0.73 that very night, but when it became clear that Musk had no actual plans to support his social media jokes, it collapsed. Later, the cryptocurrency lost more than 90% of its value by mid-2022 and has barely changed throughout 2023 and most of 2024.

But it surged after the November election. Investors felt optimistic about Trump's pro-cryptocurrency policy proposals, but they were particularly excited about Musk's potential involvement in the administration because he is a frequent figure on the campaign trail. Trump continued to appoint Musk as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (abbreviated as DOGE), an initiative tasked with cutting spending to reduce the national debt of the United States.

The acronym DOGE is a clear reference to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency. But his support has once again proven to be hollow—there are still no signs that Dogecoin will play a specific role in the DOGE project, and it has fallen 50% from its recent 52-week high, leaving investors with a feeling of déjà vu.

Bitcoin: A Strategic Reserve of the Government

Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency in the world. Its market capitalization is $2.2 trillion, accounting for more than half of the total value of $3.5 trillion of all circulating coins and tokens. Unlike most other cryptocurrencies, it continues to set new highs due to a range of unique qualities that lead investors to believe it is a reliable store of value.

Cryptocurrency is completely decentralized, meaning it cannot be controlled by any individual, company, or government and is built on a verifiable and secure record-keeping system called blockchain. It also has a fixed supply of 21 million coins—19.8 million coins are circulating, and the remaining 1.2 million will not be fully mined until 2140.

Due to the decentralized nature of the token, it does not fit the SEC's definition of a financial security. Therefore, it not only avoids regulatory issues but also has received approval for dozens of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These funds allow financial advisors and institutional investors to own cryptocurrency in a safe and regulated manner, opening up new sources of demand that could drive long-term growth.

Speaking of demand, Trump recently established a strategic Bitcoin reserve fund, initially set to hold 207,189 coins that the government seized from criminals. And with Congressional approval, the U.S. Treasury could use this reserve fund to become an active buyer of Bitcoin one day, just as they are with gold. That will almost certainly cause prices to surge, especially if other governments choose to follow suit.

In Summary

XRP has legitimate utility due to its role in the Ripple Payments network, which often drives demand for the token and supports price increases. However, banks are not necessarily required to use XRP—they can benefit from instantaneous cross-border transactions through Ripple Payments even if they use fiat currency, thus the network's success does not inherently drive value for the token.

This means that the future of XRP may depend more on the whims of speculative investors than on organic demand. But hardly any cryptocurrency is as speculative as Dogecoin. It is the world's first meme token and has no practical purpose that could support its long-term value. Therefore, this is definitely the least attractive investment among these.

As for Bitcoin, it is trading at a new high of over $111,000 as of this writing, while XRP and Dogecoin have yet to regain their highs from 2018 and 2021. It continues to prove its reliability as a store of value thanks to the unique qualities I discussed earlier, and bullish catalysts such as ETFs and strategic reserves will only further drive enthusiasm among investors. Therefore, I believe Bitcoin is the best investment among this group.