Standard Chartered\u2019s head of digital assets research, Geoffrey Kendrick, just raised his XRP price target to $8 by 2026, implying a +330% jump from its recent $1.86 price. XRP USD barely moved on the headline, which shows that many traders still treat bank research as background noise, not a buy signal. But when a major global bank starts modeling XRP USD Price years out, it tells you something about how far crypto has moved into mainstream finance.<\/p>\n
This call comes after Ripple\u2019s long legal battle with the SEC ended and as fresh XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) draw in over $1Bn in the US. Kendrick ties his target directly to this new regulatory clarity and ETF demand.<\/p>\n
But while Kendrick looks to 2026, the \u2018now\u2019 is messier. Even with record ETF inflows, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is beginning to show a bearish divergence. This means that despite the bank hype, the market might need to flush out the \u2018weak hands\u2019 toward lower support before Kendrick\u2019s $8 story can truly begin.<\/p>\n\n
(Source \u2013 TradingView, XRP USD<\/a>)<\/p>\n So, for regular investors, the question is not \u201cWill XRP price hit $8?\u201d but \u201cHow should I treat bold forecasts like this without gambling my rent money?\u201d<\/p>\n First, a quick refresher. Ripple is a company that develops payment software for banks and remittance firms, and XRP is the token that serves as a bridge currency to facilitate quick and cost-effective money transfers across borders. Think of XRP as the \u201coil\u201d inside Ripple\u2019s payment engine: customers do not always see it, but it helps the machine run faster than old-school bank rails.<\/p>\n The SEC sued Ripple in 2020, arguing that XRP sales were illegal securities offerings. A US court later ruled that<\/a> XRP sales on exchanges to retail traders did not constitute securities transactions, while some institutional sales did violate securities rules. That split decision removed the \u201cXRP is definitely an unregistered security\u201d cloud for most secondary-market trading, and in 2025 the SEC ended its appeal effort, which cleared the path for U.S. spot XRP ETFs.<\/p>\n Spot XRP ETFs matter because they let traditional investors buy XRP exposure in a stock-like wrapper. US XRP ETFs already attracted about $1.14Bn in net inflows<\/a> by late December. We covered this institutional demand shift in more detail in our XRP ETF inflows explainer<\/a>, where XRP funds outdrew some Bitcoin and Ethereum products.<\/p>\n DISCOVER:\u00a016+ New and Upcoming Binance Listings in 2025<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Standard Chartered already made aggressive calls on other coins,\u00a0including high<\/a><\/span>\u00a0long-term targets<\/a> for Ethereum. Now, it applies the same long-range lens to XRP, with earlier notes flagging $5.50 for 2025 and $8.00 for 2026, as noted\u00a0here<\/a>. When big banks spend research time on a coin, it signals that their clients\u2014funds, family offices, even corporates\u2014ask about it.<\/p>\n Under the hood, XRP use in payments has grown. RippleNet works with 300+ financial institutions, and about 40% of them use XRP for On-Demand Liquidity<\/a>, which is Ripple\u2019s feature for instant cross-border settlement. We broke down how this payment rail works in our guide to Ripple\u2019s XRP payments<\/a>, where Ripple disclosed more than $15 billion in ODL volume in 2024, with Asia-Pacific leading the charge.<\/p>\n At the same time, new products continue to be added to the XRP Ledger. Ripple\u2019s RLUSD stablecoin grew its market cap by over 300% in Q1 2025, and institutions started testing tokenized treasuries and digital commercial paper on XRPL, according to Ripple<\/a>. That does not guarantee price performance, but it shows that XRP now lives in a very different world than during the early \u201cjust a speculative altcoin\u201d days.<\/p>\n DISCOVER:\u00a0<\/span>Next 1000X Crypto: 10+ Crypto Tokens That Can Hit 1000x in 2025<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nWhy Is a Big Bank Suddenly So Bullish on XRP?<\/h2>\n
How Could Standard Chartered\u2019s XRP Forecast Affect Regular Investors?<\/h2>\n
What Are the Risks Behind a 330% XRP Price Target?<\/h2>\n