Speculation is mounting that Ripple’s potential approval to hold a Federal Reserve master account could become the catalyst for a dramatic XRP rally. Market analyst Sam Daodu has presented findings from several AI models that largely agree on a bullish outlook if Ripple secures direct settlement access.
Kraken received a master account in March 2026, proving that crypto firms can successfully navigate the approval process. That milestone, according to Daodu, makes Ripple’s own application more realistic and has led AI models to map out multiple price scenarios.
ChatGPT’s base forecast places XRP in a $2.50–$3.00 range by August 2026, provided the altcoin holds the critical $1.50 support level. A more optimistic projection—driven by ETF inflows and accelerating payment-corridor growth—could push XRP to $5. Grok’s model paints an even rosier picture: the upper target reaches $10 if Bitcoin surpasses $100,000. Claude takes a guarded short-term view, assigning a 50% probability to XRP staying between $1.35 and $1.65 through the end of 2026, but its longer-term outlook rockets to $8–$14 if ETF inflows exceed $10 billion and banking adoption gathers pace.
The boldest call comes from the Vincent Van Code AI, which lays out a year-by-year trajectory culminating at $80 by 2032. It bases this on Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s projection that 30% of Ripple Treasury’s $13 trillion annual payment flow could shift on-chain within five years. For 2026 alone, that model targets $6–$10.
Adding weight to the optimism, newly appointed Fed Chair Kevin Warsh co-authored a 2022 research paper that explicitly named XRP as a liquidity solution between stablecoins. The paper argued that private-sector payment infrastructure should not be discounted in future digital-money systems—a view that aligns with Ripple’s cross-border settlement network, where XRP acts as a bridge currency.
Separately, the integration of Ripple Prime into the DTCC blockchain ecosystem is stirring excitement. The DTCC processes over $114 trillion in securities annually, and its move toward 24/5 near-continuous US equities processing could funnel transaction volume through the XRP Ledger. At press time, XRP was trading near $1.35, up over 3%.
