XRP at $5 or Hedera at $0.50: Which Could Come First by 2028? - 24/7 Wall St.

XRP trades at $0.96, down 17.5% over the past week and 28% over the past month, having dropped from a high of $1.37 to below its August 16 close of $0.99.

Hedera has shown similar declines. At approximately $0.058, HBAR is down 7.7% in 24 hours, 13.7% over the past week, and 31.9% over the last month.

Despite these downturns, holders of both coins continuously set their sights on these round-number targets. So, which coin stands a better chance of reaching its goal, and could either one make it by 2028?

XRP’s $5 Target Needs a New All-Time High, but Hedera’s Doesn’t

For XRP to hit $5, it would need to set a new all-time high. The coin previously peaked at $3.65 in July 2025 and is now 73.7% below that level, meaning it would have to rise about 37% above its former peak to reach $5.

On the other hand, Hedera’s target of $0.50 appears more attainable initially; it’s below its all-time high of $0.569 from September 2021.

However, HBAR trades 89.8% below that peak, meaning it would need to regain nearly all the value it lost since 2021 to reach $0.50. This makes Hedera’s required increase nearly double that of XRP’s.

Over five years, returns also favor XRP. Over this period, XRP is down only 18.1%, while Hedera has fallen by a staggering 86.5%.

Supply Growth Makes Both Targets Bigger Than They Look

Market capitalization, which reflects the total value of all coins in circulation, shows how much money each target would take. XRP has 63.5 billion coins in circulation out of a maximum supply of 100 billion, for a market cap of $60.9 billion and the No. 6 spot.

If XRP reaches $5, its market cap would swell to about $318 billion. The fully diluted valuation, or the worth of all potential XRP, is $95.9 billion.

Hedera, meanwhile, has 44.3 billion HBAR circulating out of a total cap of 50 billion, giving it a market cap of $2.57 billion and placing it at 36th in market rankings.

If HBAR reaches $0.50, its market cap would rise to about $22 billion. Supply growth poses challenges for both targets. Ripple gradually releases XRP from escrow, while Hedera has continuously released tokens from its treasury since launch.

As a result, many more coins are in circulation now than during either asset’s peak. Therefore, if HBAR returns to $0.50, the network’s market valuation would be significantly higher compared to its 2021 highs.

Payments Could Lift XRP, and Tokenization Could Lift Hedera

Ripple is getting traction with its dollar-backed stablecoin, RLUSD. This token is designed to maintain a steady value of $1. Ripple and C2FO plan to use RLUSD alongside XRP Ledger settlement for quick supplier invoice payments through C2FO Instant Pay.

As XRP covers transaction fees on the ledger, increased network activity could boost demand for the coin. Despite this, Polymarket shows XRP still has far to climb.

XRP hitting $2 by December 31, 2027, stands at 44% on Polymarket, while a new all-time high by December 31, 2026, is at a mere 0.7%.

Apex Group, a financial services firm, has joined the Hedera Council, which oversees the network and makes governance decisions. The firm aims to leverage Hedera for tokenization, a process through which assets like fund shares are transformed into blockchain tokens, alongside compliance and settlement applications.

However, HBAR fell 13.7% over the week. Moreover, Hedera’s 24-hour trading volume of $61.8 million lags behind XRP’s $2 billion, suggesting far less capital is driving HBAR’s price movements.

Which Could Come First, XRP at $5 or Hedera at $0.50?

We believe XRP’s $5 target is more likely to be achieved first, but both prices seem challenging to reach by 2028. XRP must first reclaim $2, then exceed its previous high of $3.65, before $5 becomes a realistic goal.

Conversely, Hedera needs to break above a one-year high of around $0.15 and recover most of the value lost since 2021, all while facing lower trading volumes.

So, which target is more likely to be reached first by 2028, XRP’s $5 or Hedera’s $0.50? If XRP surpasses $2 by December 31, 2027, discussion around $5 gains credibility.

If it drops to $0.80—16.7% lower—the $5 target likely shifts beyond 2028. For Hedera, moving above its 90-day high of $0.12 would signal a recovery. Without it, $0.50 could slip toward a 2030 timeline, as in ChatGPT’s forecast for Hedera.