British multinational bank Standard Chartered made an ambitious prediction: It expects Ripple-promoted cryptocurrency XRP to reach $12.5 before the end of Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. president.
The bank believes this price increase will result from a combination of positive regulatory developments, institutional adoption, and increasing use cases.
Standard Chartered Forecasts A 500% XRP Price Rally by 2028
Standard Chartered believes that XRP will hit $5.50 in 2025, steadily increasing to $8 in 2026, $400,000 in 2027, $10.40 by the end of 2027, and then $12.50 in 2028.
XRP currently sits at $1.99. Standard Chartered’s prediction of $12.50 would be a 500% increase from this position. In this scenario, XRP would likely surpass Ethereum to become the second-largest crypto by market cap in the process.
“By the end of 2028, we see XRP’s market cap overtaking Ethereum’s,” Geoffrey Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered Bank, wrote in a release. “That will make XRP the second largest (non-stablecoin) digital asset at that time.”
Critical Drivers For XRP’s Forecasted Growth
Kendrick points to key catalysts, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s recent announcement that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has thrown out its appeal in the longstanding XRP battle — a move he believes was expected following pro-crypto Donald Trump’s historic election win.
The investment bank also expects the SEC to approve XRP ETFs in Q3 2025, with potential inflows of $4-$8 billion in the first year.
XRP’s core function — fostering international and cross-currency transactions — is similar to the fastest-growing use of digital assets, similar to stablecoins, according to Kendrick.
“XRPL is similar to the main use case for stablecoins such as Tether: blockchain-enabled financial transactions that have traditionally been done through traditional financial (TradFi) institutions.”
Stablecoin transaction volumes have increased 50% over the last year, and Kendrick anticipates a tenfold increase in the next four years.
Moreover, Ripple is also exploring the tokenization sector, with projects such as tokenized U.S. Treasury bill funds and its USD-pegged stablecoin RLUSD, Standard Chartered noted.
These positive factors mean that XRP will be moving in concert with its bigger peer Bitcoin (BTC), which the bank predicts reaching $500,000 by the end of 2028.
XRPL, however, suffers from two significant flaws: its developer ecosystem is rather small compared to peers, and its low-fee model limits value capture. Nevertheless, Kendrick thinks the aforementioned positive tailwinds could offset these shortcomings.
