XRP (XRP 1.87%) may be in the red for 2025, but it's exactly the type of cryptocurrency that could explode in price in 2026. Investors saw this firsthand in late 2024 and early 2025, when XRP skyrocketed by 580%.
Heading into next year, it's time to think big about XRP. While it might seem implausible at first, there's an outside chance that XRP could soar 400% from its current price of about $2 to hit $10 within the next 12 months. Here's how it might happen.
The new XRP ETFs
Let's start with the soaring demand for the new spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The first of these launched in November, and by all accounts, they have been a raging success. Nearly $1 billion has flowed into them in just a month. At a time when the broader crypto market has been in decline, demand has remained constant for the new spot XRP ETFs.
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Based simply on this new source of demand, the price of XRP could start to move north once again. In mid-July, XRP hit a 52-week high of $3.65. So it's reasonable to expect that sustained buying of the new spot XRP ETFs by large institutional investors could push the price of XRP back to the $3-$4 range.
New demand from XRP treasury companies
The second major catalyst is a ramp-up of buying by XRP treasury companies. Just like Bitcoin treasury companies, these companies raise money from outside investors, and then use those funds to buy XRP.
The first XRP treasury companies appeared this summer, buoyed by the success of the launch of new Ethereum treasury companies. In 2026, more XRP treasury companies could be on the way.
CRYPTO: XRP
Key Data Points
The big one that everyone has their eye on right now is Evernorth Holdings, a $1 billion publicly traded behemoth backed by Ripple, the company behind the XRP token. It now holds 473 million XRP tokens, valued at about $900 million.
In a best-case scenario for XRP investors, Evernorth becomes to XRP what Strategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy) is to Bitcoin. Any time the price of XRP looks a bit shaky, Evernorth could step in, make a splashy new buy of XRP, and help to reassure investors.
So, as a rough estimate, let's assume that all of this new buying from high-profile crypto treasury companies can push the price of XRP from the $3-$4 range to the $5 range.
A Ripple IPO
XRP would still need a huge, blow-out-the-doors type of event to get from the $5 price level to the $10 price level. Here's exactly the event that could do it: a blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) for Ripple.
Of course, top executives at Ripple have been denying IPO rumors for months now. They claim they have all the capital they need to complete new strategic deals and build out the XRP blockchain ledger. So maybe this is simply pie-in-the-sky thinking.
But here's the thing: The IPO window could be closing quickly for crypto companies, and Ripple might decide to move forward with an initial public offering before the window shuts.
Right now, Ripple has a $40 billion valuation. That's roughly what Strategy is worth right now. And it's roughly one-half of what Coinbase Global was worth when it went public in 2021.
A successful Ripple IPO would surely send the price of the XRP token soaring. Crypto analysts have suggested that a $100 billion valuation for Ripple might be enough to send XRP past the $10 mark.
Just how likely is a $10 price target?
There's just one little problem, of course. XRP and Ripple have a long track record of overpromising and underdelivering. The hype, buzz, and speculation in the XRP investor community has a way of getting out of control.
There's a good reason the all-time high for XRP still sits below the $4 mark. Savvy investors have learned to heavily discount all the hype and buzz.
Nevertheless, Standard Chartered recently predicted that XRP could hit a price of $8 by the end of next year, $10 by the end of 2027, and $12.50 by the end of 2028. So maybe a price of $10 next year is not so unrealistic after all. It would simply move up the timetable by a year.
We've seen XRP explode in price before. If all goes according to plan, it will happen again in 2026.
