Key Points
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Despite launching more than a decade ago, XRP still trades for just $1.
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In a bull case scenario, the pace of institutional adoption picks up, and XRP soars past the $10 mark.
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In a bear case scenario, stablecoins continue to chip away at XRP’s functionality, capping any potential upside.
- 10 stocks we like better than XRP ›
For more than a decade, crypto investors have talked up XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) as an explosive, high-upside cryptocurrency. Yet here we are in 2026, and XRP is still trading for just $1.
So what happens to XRP over the next three years? Will it finally fulfill its promise, or will it fade into irrelevance? Let’s take a closer look at two potential scenarios for XRP.
Bull case scenario
There is no shortage of bullish price predictions for XRP. It’s not hard to find price targets of $100 for XRP. These are obviously pie-in-the-sky price targets, based on some wildly outlandish assumptions about exponential growth.
A more realistic price target comes from Standard Chartered. In April 2025, the bank outlined a scenario by which XRP could become a $12.50 cryptocurrency by 2028.
That prediction was largely based on growth in institutional adoption. Simply put, more financial institutions and banks than ever are using the XRP blockchain ledger for payments and liquidity, and that should boost the value of XRP.
Over time, the thinking goes, even more uses will be found for the XRP blockchain ledger. One of those use cases is real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, which is projected to be a multitrillion-dollar market opportunity. If the XRP blockchain ledger becomes the go-to blockchain for asset tokenization, then it could be off to the races for XRP.
Bear case scenario
However, dollar-pegged stablecoins are starting to usurp some of the XRP token’s functionality. This becomes immediately evident when you consider that XRP is really just a bridge currency used to move money around. Can’t some of those same functions be accomplished using stablecoins?
Even Ripple, the company behind the XRP token, seems to acknowledge this fact. Ripple has been promoting its own stablecoin, Ripple USD (CRYPTO: RLUSD), as an option for financial institutions and banks. Already, Ripple USD has a market cap of $1.5 billion, despite only launching at the end of 2024.
So investors need to decide: Is XRP really just a stablecoin in disguise, or is it a high-powered altcoin capable of powering new advances in decentralized finance (DeFi)? If it’s the former, then XRP could languish around the $1 mark for the foreseeable future.
Is this the most likely scenario for XRP?
To get an idea of where XRP might be in three years, let’s take a look back at where XRP was three years ago. In July 2023, XRP was trading at just $0.50. So, even though XRP exploded in value in late 2024, it has given up nearly all of those gains. XRP is now down 70% from its 2025 highs.
That leads me to think that the upside for XRP over the next few years might be capped at $3. At that price, XRP would have roughly the same market cap as Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world.
For that reason, I’m reducing my expectations for XRP. It has had more than a decade to prove its worth, and still trades for just $1. There are better crypto investments out there worth exploring.
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Dominic Basulto has positions in Ethereum and XRP. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
