After hitting cycle highs close to $3.50 in July 2025, XRP has been on a decisive retreat, having lost approximately 60% of its value since, but the DeepSeek artificial intelligence (AI) model, nonetheless, forecasts a substantial rally by the end of 2026.
Indeed, unlike much of the cryptocurrency market that peaked together with Bitcoin (BTC) in October last year, XRP enjoyed an earlier rally driven first by a more amicable SEC and then by the resolution to its long-running legal battle with the regulator.
Despite this powerful rally, the token has since been trading much like other digital assets and has seen its prices on a steady downward trajectory since the start of 2026.
Still, amidst the broad uncertainty about whether the cryptocurrency market has entered a new ‘winter’ or if it is poised for a rally later this year, Finbold sought new insights from the popular Chinese AI platform, DeepSeek.
DeepSeek sets XRP price target for the end of 2026
As it quickly turned out, DeepSeek’s take was akin to the views expressed by banking giants such as Standard Chartered.
Indeed, while it acknowledged the deluge of bearish factors, including the price collapse and massive realized losses, the AI also pointed toward the continuously high network activity, large whale positions, and a recent surge in network transactions.
DeepSeek also reflected on XRP’s past performance, noting that, following a similar and massive correction in 2021 and 2022, the token entered an eight-month period of recovery that eventually saw it nearly double in value.
Under the circumstances and given the severity of the crash that the cryptocurrency had already experienced, the AI estimated a rally through the middle and the second half of 2026 is highly likely.
Therefore, it sets its XRP price target for the end of 2026 at $2.80 – 102% above the token’s press time price of $1.38.
Interestingly, the DeepSeek’s forecast is an exact match to the estimates provided by Standard Chartered. Earlier in 2026, the British banking giant issued downward revisions for its targets for multiple cryptocurrencies, including a downgrade for XRP from an $8 forecast to a $2.80 prediction for the end of the current year.
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