Chartered Cuts Crypto Forecast Amid Market Downturn

Standard Chartered's cryptocurrency forecast for this year has taken a hit following February's market downturn. The British investment bank reduced its year-end XRP price target to $2.80 from $8, a 65% cut. This is part of broader revisions that include bitcoin being lowered to $100,000 from $150,000 and ether to $4,000 from $7,000.

XRP's recent performance has been lackluster, trading around 59% below its July all-time high of approximately $3.40. The token fell to $1.16 in February, its weakest level since November 2024, before recovering partially.

Standard Chartered's global head of digital assets research, Geoffrey Kendrick, warned that bitcoin could test $50,000 before recovering later this year. Kendrick also noted that XRP should maintain pace with ethereum given both assets' exposure to stablecoin development and tokenized real-world assets.

The Clarity Act, pending cryptocurrency legislation in the U.S. Senate, represents a potential catalyst for XRP recovery. However, progress on the bill stalled last month after disagreements between banking executives and cryptocurrency industry leaders.