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.

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.

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