As you know Ripple position is No.2 and will be No.1 in coming months due its partnerships with financial institutions and price of xrp will also grow more.
While I do not doubt the capacity of Ripple to challenge Ethereum for position 2, I would hardly agree that it will ever be number 1 on coinmarketcap. I personally admire Ripple and the team behind it is putting up much efforts but I see its success as well as that of other altcoins to depend greatly on Bitcoin.