Ethereum vs. XRP Tribalism? John Deaton Says the Market Will Decide

Pro-crypto lawyer John Deaton has commented on speculations of an existing tribalism in the crypto community, especially among Ethereum and XRP holders. Deaton opted against picking a side and revealed how the ultimate winner will emerge.

Deaton On The Tribalism Involving Ethereum and XRP

In an X post, the crypto lawyer remarked that tribalism is alive and well in the crypto community. He claimed that people who hate ETH strongly disagree with other communities. At the same time, people who hate XRP or Ripple are saying the same thing.

Deaton said that the good news is that government insiders aren’t the ones picking winners from losers and that the market will do that. The lawyer made this comment as a follow-up to an earlier post, in which he opined that ETH was one of the winners of the passage of the GENIUS Act.

In his earlier post, the legal expert said that many people believe that Circle with USDC and Ripple with RLUSD are going to be the obvious winners of the GENIUS Act, which regulates stablecoins. He added that it is fair to say that Ethereum, without question, is one of them.

In support of the Ethereum network, Deaton highlighted the fact that the network accounts for most of the trading volume for Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin, over the XRP Ledger, which is the crypto firm’s native network.

Following his statement, he received criticism from members of the XRP community, which may have prompted his follow-up post about the market deciding the winner between these coins and networks.

Notably, talks about tribalism come at a time when both altcoins are fighting for dominance as the second and third largest coins by market cap, behind Bitcoin. Ethereum currently boasts a market cap of $443 billion, while XRP is still well below with a market cap of $180 billion.

The Tribalism Is Heating Up

Tony Edward, a prominent member of the crypto community, also commented on this tribalism, stating that it is heating up. He noted that XRP is grabbing a lot of liquidity and many BTC and ETH maxis are having mental breakdowns.

As stated recently, the tribalism is heating up. Everyone trying to grab retail liquidity. $XRP is grabbing a lot of liquidity and many BTC & ETH maxis are having mental breakdowns. https://t.co/H9nFZb5Vsg

— Tony Edward (Thinking Crypto Podcast) (@ThinkingCrypto1) August 4, 2025

His statement came in response to Bitcoin maxi Robert Breedlove, who described XRP as meaning “extremely retarded person.” Interestingly, this comes at a time when USA Today made a case for why XRP is the best crypto to invest $500 in.

Following the USA Today recommendation, John Deaton commented, saying that the crypto market may be in a bull market. However, not everyone shares a similar sentiment to Deaton, with some arguing against the recommendation.

Crypto analyst Ali Martinez described it as the “signs of a market top. Meanwhile, Crypto commentator, Laura Shin, sarcastically commented about how USA Today had tweeted the recommendation to its 5.1 million followers. She further remarked that the platform needs “crypto-literate journalists.”