Standard Chartered has forecasted that XRP, the popular cryptocurrency, could see a substantial increase in value, potentially reaching $12.50 by the end of 2028. This would mark a 500% rise from its current price, driven by a combination of regulatory clarity, wider adoption, and growing utilization in cross-border payments and tokenization. The forecast comes from Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, who has outlined a strategic growth trajectory for XRP in the coming years.
Kendrick’s projections include intermediate price milestones of $5.50 by 2025, $8.00 by 2026, and $10.40 by 2027, with XRP expected to maintain the $12.50 mark through 2029. A significant factor in this expected growth is the potential approval of a spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States, with Kendrick suggesting that such an approval could draw in $4-8 billion in inflows during the first year. This mirrors similar expectations from JPMorgan regarding the impact of an XRP ETF on the market.
XRP’s value growth is also closely linked to its role in facilitating cross-border and cross-currency payments. As stablecoin transaction volumes are projected to increase tenfold over the next four years, XRP’s core use case is expected to become even more critical in the global financial system. Kendrick sees the XRP Ledger (XRPL), which is designed primarily for payments, as having the potential to become a leader in tokenization, drawing comparisons to Stellar in terms of structure and function. Ripple’s ongoing initiatives, such as the creation of a U.S. Treasury-backed fund and the introduction of the RLUSD stablecoin, further reinforce this outlook.
The recent legal victory for Ripple in its long-standing battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also been seen as a positive development for XRP. The SEC dropped its appeal, and Ripple agreed to a $50 million settlement without admitting any wrongdoing. This legal resolution was widely anticipated, particularly after the shift in U.S. political leadership, according to Kendrick.
Despite these favorable developments, XRP’s market response has been relatively subdued. Following news of the potential ETF approval, XRP’s price experienced a 4% drop. The ETF in question does not directly hold XRP but uses swap agreements to track its price, which may explain the lack of immediate investor enthusiasm.
Kendrick also acknowledged several challenges facing XRP, including its low-fee structure and smaller developer ecosystem, which could limit its ability to capture market value compared to other cryptocurrencies. However, he remains optimistic that broader adoption and institutional interest will help offset these limitations.
Currently, XRP ranks as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Kendrick projects that by 2028, XRP will surpass Ethereum to become the second-largest non-stablecoin digital asset. He also predicts that Bitcoin could reach $500,000 by 2029, with XRP outperforming other digital assets in relative terms.
In addition to these projections, Kendrick revised his price target for Ethereum in 2025, lowering it from $10,000 to $4,000, while forecasting that Avalanche (AVAX) could reach $250 by 2029.
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