Will XRP’s price hit $8 after XRP ETF inflows climb to $18 Billion?

U.S. Spot Ripple [XRP] ETF products have attracted significant institutional inflows and may eventually boost the crypto assets if macro and broader sentiment improve. 

The ETF products debuted in mid-November and became an instant hit. They recorded no single day of outflow in 2025.

In fact, the cumulative total netflow crossed $1.16 billion with net assets of $1.27 billion. Still, XRP struggled below $2 for most of December’s trading days. 

Standard Chartered: XRP could hit $8

Even so, the growing ETF demand could be a major catalyst for XRP repricing in 2026, according to Standard Chartered Bank.

In a note to clients in April, Standard Chartered made one of the most bullish calls on the altcoin, with a price target of $8, citing regulatory clarity and utility in payments.

At that time, Geoff Kendricks, the bank’s head of digital assets research, said, 

The $8 target implied a 300% upside potential from the current levels of $1.87. 

At press time, XRP’s $1.87 level translated to $113 billion in market cap. If the asset explodes to $8, that would imply a $485 billion market cap or over $360 billion in new capital injection. 

With current ETF inflows at $1.1 billion, the capital needed to drive XRP to the Standard Chartered price target appeared far-fetched. 

But using market cap alone doesn’t give a clear picture of the amount needed to fuel the XRP rally. So we explored the realized cap, the on-chain metric that gauges capital entering XRP markets.

During the late 2024 rally, XRP surged from $0.5 to $3 (6x move) after absorbing $25 billion (realized cap jumped from $30B to $55 billion).

In short, for every 1x price move, XRP required $4.2 billion in realized cap or capital inflow. 

So ideally, the $8 price target (4.4x price move) would need about $18.6 billion in new capital or a 19x surge in current ETF inflows. 

Whale sell-off derails XRP recovery

That said, XRP whales became net sellers in the past two months. The whale sell-off may have capped XRP recovery prospects amid broader weak market sentiment.

Unless the whale dump eases, XRP may struggle below $2 in the near term. 

Final Thoughts 

• XRP needed nearly $19 billion in new capital to drive it to the Standard Chartered price target of $8. 
• Whales’ renewed sell-off that may further delay a strong recovery for the altcoin in the short term.