Sean Williams, The Motley Fool
6 min read
Over the last century, no asset class has come close to matching the annualized return of stocks. But when the lens is narrowed to the past decade, Wall Street’s major stock indexes haven’t been able to hold a candle to cryptocurrency returns.
In February 2016, the cumulative value of all digital currencies totaled less than $8 billion. As of this writing in the late evening on Feb. 7, the aggregate value of digital currencies is approximately $2.38 trillion, based on data from CoinMarketCap.com. Widely held digital tokens Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) have catapulted higher by 18,500% and 17,450%, respectively, over the trailing decade.
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Despite these life-altering gains, optimism for this highly popular cryptocurrency duo hasn’t slowed on Wall Street. Select pundits (Wall Street analysts or industry experts) are looking for up to three-to-four-digit upside for Bitcoin and XRP in the coming years. However, when an investment seems too good to be true, it often is.
Among Wall Street analysts, Standard Chartered‘s Geoffrey Kendrick sports the highest price target for XRP, the bridge currency used for cross-border payments in Ripple’s payment network. His firm’s report, published early last year, called for XRP to reach $8 in 2026, $10.40 per token in 2027, and $12.50 by the end of 2028. If accurate, Kendrick’s call would represent 768% upside from the current price per XRP token.
One of the leading catalysts for XRP, according to Kendrick, was the expected approval of spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which has occurred since Standard Chartered’s report was published. Giving investors access to spot XRP ETFs should lead to cash inflows and make it significantly easier for optimists to wager on the token’s success.
Kendrick also pointed to the end of a multi-year legal battle between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple as an upside catalyst. With the SEC and Ripple dropping their respective appeals, the gray cloud of litigation has been lifted.
Lastly, Kendrick anticipates the XRP Ledger, which is used for cross-border payments, may become a core player in future tokenization efforts.
While there’s no question that XRP enjoyed a perfect storm of upside catalysts in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election, the luster has worn off. XRP is more than 60% below its all-time high of $3.65, and there are reasons to believe it won’t get anywhere close to Kendrick’s high-water price target by 2028.
