Investing.com -- Standard Chartered forecasts a massive surge for Ripple’s XRP token over the next few years before U.S. president Donald Trump leaves office.
In a Tuesday note, the global investment bank initiated coverage on XRP, noting the token could reach $12.50 by the end of 2028, up from around $1.90 at the time of writing. In percentage terms, that would represent a 550% surge.
The outlook is based on XRP’s potential to “keep pace with our expected price increases for Bitcoin in real terms,” supported by its role in cross-border payments and tokenization.
XRP surged sixfold in the two months following Trump’s 2024 election win, the strongest gain among major digital assets.
Geoff Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered Bank, attributes this to the expectation that the SEC would drop its appeal against Ripple in a long-running legal case. That move was confirmed in March, helping to remove a key overhang from XRP’s outlook.
Kendrick expects the XRP Ledger (XRPL) to benefit from structural growth in blockchain payments, an area where stablecoins have already seen transaction volumes expand rapidly.
The analyst believes that XRP’s post-election gains are “sustainable,” not only due to recent SEC leadership revamp “ but also because XRP is uniquely positioned at the heart of one of the fastest-growing uses for digital assets – facilitation of cross-border and cross-currency payments.”
Another key catalyst driving Kendrick’s bullishness is Ripple’s recent push into tokenization. Real-world assets such as money-market funds and Treasury bills have begun launching on XRPL, a trend the bank sees accelerating.
“Given what Stellar has achieved, XRPL should be successful in the tokenisation space,” Kendrick wrote.
Exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows are also a potential driver. With spot XRP ETF applications now in the pipeline, the bank expects approvals as early as the third quarter of 2025.
Kendrick estimates that XRP ETFs could attract between $4 billion and $8 billion in their first year, based on current market cap and precedent from other digital asset ETFs.
“We expect ETF approval in Q3-2025,” he said. “These positive drivers should be enough to help XRP keep pace with our expected price increases for Bitcoin in real terms.”
Kendrick projects XRP to rise steadily over the next few years, forecasting the token to hit $5.50 by the end of 2025, move to $8.00 in 2026, and continue climbing to $10.40 by late 2027.
He forecasts XRP to peak at $12.50 before the end of 2028, with a slight dip to $12.25 projected for 2029.
Still, certain risks remain. Kendrick points to XRP’s low developer count and limited fee revenue as negatives compared to other blockchains, though these negative factors are expected to be offset by the positives.