- XRP consumed only about $73,000 in electricity over the year, at $0.0000028 per token transaction.
- Bitcoin used $8 billion to $12 billion in electricity during the same period, at $50 to $80 per BTC per transaction.
XRP remains one of the most efficient cryptocurrencies. In addition to its efficiency in payments, with near-zero transaction fees, its network operates with significantly less electricity than other chains, especially Bitcoin (BTC).
Most Efficient Cryptocurrencies in 2025
According to the official XRP Ledger (XRPL) website, its network runs on an environmentally sustainable ecosystem with negligible energy consumption. It’s a lot less than Bitcoin, which accounts for close to 0.3% of global energy use.
Citing University of Cambridge data, OKX reported in November last year that XRP only utilizes 0.0005 kilowatt-hour (kWh) per transaction. The figures bring its network consumption to around 500 megawatt-hour (MWh) annually. It means transactions in its network draw less electricity than brewing a cup of coffee.
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ADVERTISEMENTCrypto by Energy Use (Source: OKX, citing University of Cambridge’s 2025 data)In contrast, Bitcoin and other Proof-of-Work (PoW) coins guzzle approximately 700 kWh per transaction, which is enough to power an average US home for a month. On par with XRP are Stellar (XLM), with 0.00025 kWh per transaction and 500 MWh of annual consumption, and Algorand (ALGO), with 0.0003 kWh per transaction but much higher annual consumption at 2,000 MWh.
XRP Continues Delivering Energy Efficiency Into 2026
Fast-forward to the present, the pseudonymous Vet, a default Unique Node List (dUNL) validator on XRPL, revealed that XRP merely used up 405 MWh over the entire year ending on February 15, 2026. It translates to roughly 0.0000169 watt-hour of electricity to run the token and 0.00001556 kWh per transaction.
In the same timeframe, the University of Cambridge Judge Business School’s Centre for Alternative Finance’s theoretical lower bound computation of Bitcoin’s power demand yielded 11.20 gigawatts (GW) annually, equivalent to 98.19 terrawatt-hour (TWh) in a year.
ADVERTISEMENTPutting those into costs would mean Bitcoin used $8 billion to $12 billion in electricity for the whole year at industrial rates, or $50 to $80 per BTC transaction. On the other hand, XRP used only $0.0000028 of electricity per token transaction, equivalent to $73,000 annually, across the period.
Miners Constantly Dumping BTC
Vet then told the Crypto Twitter (CT) community that such an enormous operating cost forces Bitcoin mining firms to dump their coins into the market constantly. In connection with this, Blockchain.com data showed that the BTC mining difficulty has dropped significantly to its lowest level since July 2025.
The trend indicates that many Bitcoin miners are capitulating as the cost of production outpaced BTC’s value. Bitcoin notably went into a deep correction this year, falling from around $100,000 in January to $60,000 in the first week of the current month. So far, it’s struggling to maintain a decisive climb above $70,000 due to ongoing sell pressure.
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty (Source: Blockchain.com)As of Monday midnight (UTC), BTC maintains its trajectory at the $68,800 range, while XRP trades at $1.47.
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