XRP Outlook Slashed: Standard Chartered Lowers Forecast From $8 To $2

The British financial giant Standard Chartered sharply reduced its price outlook for XRP, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency. The company trimmed its end-of-2026 target by 65% following the severe downturn in the broader crypto market in the past month.

The revision comes even as the altcoin posted a modest 2% rebound over the past week, trading around $1.47 per token at the time of writing. Despite that short-term recovery, the bank’s digital assets team now believes the token is unlikely to reach a new all-time high this year.

New XRP Price Prediction

The updated forecast was first reported on Monday by DL News, with Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, outlining the changes in a note to investors. 

Kendrick, who leads the bank’s crypto research efforts, acknowledged that recent market conditions have forced a broad reassessment of price expectations across the sector.

“Recent price action for digital assets has been challenging, to say the least,” Kendrick wrote. “We expect further declines near-term, and we lower our forecasts across the asset class.”

Under the revised outlook, Standard Chartered now expects XRP to reach $2.80 by the end of 2026, a substantial cut from its previous $8 projection. The earlier target had been issued in December, when the bank took a far more optimistic stance. 

At that time, Kendrick pointed to increasing regulatory clarity surrounding XRP’s status as a financial asset, along with progress toward exchange-traded fund (ETF) products, as key catalysts that could drive significant price appreciation.

Broad Forecast Cuts Across Major Tokens

The $8 forecast was made roughly two and a half months after the sharp market crash on October 10, when sentiment had begun to stabilize. 

However, as February draws to a close, the broader crypto market has yet to mount a sustained recovery. That prolonged weakness has prompted Standard Chartered to reassess not only XRP but the wider digital asset landscape.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) expected price has been reduced from $150,000 to $100,000. Ethereum’s (ETH) forecast has been revised down from $7,000 to $4,000, while Solana’s (SOL) target has been cut from $250 to $135.

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com