Normal Chartered has initiated protection of XRP with a sharply bullish outlook, predicting the digital asset may climb to $12.50 earlier than the top of President Donald Trump’s present time period.
The financial institution mentioned XRP’s increasing use circumstances, favorable authorized trajectory, and resilience amid macroeconomic volatility place it as one of many few digital belongings prone to outperform throughout the subsequent market cycle, in line with Normal Chartered head of digital belongings analysis Geoffrey Kendrick.
Kendrick recognized XRP as a top-tier funding alongside Bitcoin (BTC) and Avalanche (AVAX), citing a mix of structural tailwinds and strategic relevance in world funds.
Authorized readability and utility enlargement
The financial institution’s outlook rests largely on expectations that the US Securities and Change Fee’s lawsuit towards Ripple Labs will resolve in Ripple’s favor, eradicating a serious overhang that has lengthy restricted XRP’s institutional adoption.
The lender’s report additionally tied XRP’s potential upside to US political developments, projecting {that a} second Trump time period would probably deliver higher regulatory readability and a friendlier coverage setting for digital belongings.
Normal Chartered emphasised that XRP’s worth proposition has advanced. Initially designed as a cross-border funds token, XRP now sits on the core of a broader community, the XRP Ledger, which the financial institution described as a blockchain with growing potential for tokenization and enterprise-grade use circumstances.
Kendrick believes that XRP’s worth may “maintain tempo with Bitcoin in actual phrases” and outlined a base-case state of affairs by which XRP rises from its present stage close to $1.90 to $12.50, assuming Bitcoin reaches $500,000 over the identical timeframe.
The financial institution expects the catalyst for this progress to emerge from a mix of improved authorized positioning, community upgrades, and rising transactional demand.
XRP may surpass ETH market cap
In one among its most hanging forecasts, the report projected that XRP may overtake Ethereum (ETH) in market capitalization by the top of 2025.
Whereas Ethereum is predicted to succeed in $8,000 in that timeframe, the financial institution labeled it a “loser” relative to different prime belongings, pointing to scalability challenges and rising competitors from extra specialised chains.
Kendrick contrasted Ethereum’s broader challenges with what it views as XRP’s “sustainable” progress prospects. He famous that latest management adjustments inside the XRP ecosystem, alongside increasing on-chain exercise, reinforce confidence in XRP’s long-term positioning.
If XRP follows the trajectory outlined within the report, it can turn into the second-largest non-stablecoin digital asset globally, trailing solely Bitcoin.
Normal Chartered maintained its present Bitcoin forecast of $200,000 by the top of 2025 and reiterated its confidence that the subsequent leg larger for digital belongings will likely be fueled by “winners” which have robust use circumstances and regulatory visibility.
Kendrick framed present market volatility, together with tariff-driven uncertainty, as a strategic alternative for long-term allocation. With XRP now formally on the financial institution’s radar, the report alerts a broader shift in how establishments are reassessing digital belongings as soon as seen as legally or structurally constrained.
The inclusion of XRP in Normal Chartered’s prime picks displays a rising consensus {that a} new part of adoption is underway, one that will reward belongings with real-world functions and authorized readability over model recognition alone.
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