NEW YORK, January 1, 2026, 15:31 ET
- XRP was up about 2.7% at $1.87, while bitcoin and ether also rose, according to market data.
- Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick projected XRP could reach $8 by the end of 2026, FXEmpire reported. 1
- SoSoValue data cited by FXEmpire showed U.S. spot XRP ETFs have stayed net positive since launching in mid-November, lifting total net inflows to about $1.16 billion. 1
Standard Chartered’s projection that XRP could reach $8 by the end of 2026 has returned to the center of crypto market debate as the token traded around $1.87 on Thursday. 1
The forecast matters now because the route many institutions use to buy crypto is changing. Spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) — listed products designed to track an asset — are giving investors a regulated way to gain exposure to tokens such as XRP. 1
That shift is forcing traders to weigh longer-dated price targets against near-term liquidity and positioning as 2026 begins. 1
XRP was last up about 2.7% at $1.87, while bitcoin rose about 1.0% to $88,236 and ether gained about 0.7% to $2,987.93, according to market data.
FXEmpire reported that Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, projected a year-end 2026 XRP price of $8. Kendrick also outlined a $12.5 target for 2028, the report said. 1
The FXEmpire report said Kendrick’s thesis leaned on legal clarity after the Ripple-SEC settlement and on institutional adoption through XRP ETFs. 1
SoSoValue data cited by FXEmpire showed the U.S. spot XRP ETF market took in $15.55 million on Dec. 30 and has not recorded an outflow since launching in mid-November, lifting total net inflows to about $1.16 billion. 1
FXEmpire also pointed to U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs posting net outflows of about $2.74 billion since Nov. 14, feeding talk that XRP could “decouple” — trade on its own rather than move in lockstep with bitcoin. 1
“XRP … is going to be a divergent asset,” Canary Funds CEO Steven McClurg said in a Token Relations broadcast cited by FXEmpire. 1
Derivatives positioning has also climbed, even as the spot price has not broken out. TradingView reported outstanding XRP derivatives contracts at about 1.74 billion XRP, roughly $3.26 billion in futures exposure — a rise in open interest, meaning the value of outstanding futures bets. 2
XRP is the native token of the XRP Ledger, a blockchain designed for payments, and Ripple uses XRP as a bridge asset in some cross-border transfers, Reuters Practical Law reported. Ripple also created an escrow structure to manage the release of a large pool of XRP over time. 3
The SEC sued Ripple in 2020, alleging XRP sales were unregistered securities; a U.S. judge later ruled exchange-traded XRP sales were not securities transactions while certain institutional sales were, and the case later moved toward resolution, Reuters Practical Law reported. 3
For now, the market’s near-term test remains whether XRP can clear the psychologically important $2 level and whether ETF inflows remain steady. FXEmpire cited technical resistance near $2, while TradingView flagged heavier derivatives activity without a comparable price surge. 1
