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.
- 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.
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.
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.
That shift is forcing traders to weigh longer-dated price targets against near-term liquidity and positioning as 2026 begins.
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.
The FXEmpire report said Kendrick’s thesis leaned on legal clarity after the Ripple-SEC settlement and on institutional adoption through XRP ETFs.
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.
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. FXEmpire
“XRP … is going to be a divergent asset,” Canary Funds CEO Steven McClurg said in a Token Relations broadcast cited by FXEmpire. FXEmpire
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.
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.
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.
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.
