Standard Chartered has initiated coverage of Uniswap’s UNI token with a notably bullish long-term forecast, arguing that the decentralised exchange could become a core trading layer for tokenised assets as traditional finance moves further on-chain. In a 15 June 2026 digital assets research note, Geoff Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered Bank, forecast UNI-USD rising to USD 100 by end-2030 from USD 2.50, implying a 40x increase.
Standard Chartered Sees UNI Rising to USD 100
Standard Chartered’s base case places Uniswap at the centre of a broader expansion in decentralised finance liquidity. The bank forecasts UNI-USD at USD 6.50 by end-2026, USD 20 by end-2027, USD 40 by end-2028, USD 65 by end-2029 and USD 100 by end-2030. In the same forecast table, Standard Chartered projects ETH-USD at USD 40,000 and BTC-USD at USD 500,000 by end-2030, while arguing that UNI would outperform both assets over the period.
The report frames Uniswap not simply as a retail decentralised exchange, but as infrastructure that could be integrated by traditional financial institutions once tokenised assets scale. “Uniswap, the largest decentralised exchange (DEX), stands to benefit directly from the expected surge in tokenised assets moving to decentralised finance (DeFi). We project that tokenised assets on-chain will grow to USD 4tn by end-2028 from USD 340bn today.” Standard Chartered further expects the share of tokenised assets active in DeFi to rise to 30% by end-2030, compared with 3.5% today.
A central part of the bank’s thesis is that Uniswap’s market valuation could move closer to that of Coinbase if the protocol succeeds in commercialising its role and forming meaningful TradFi partnerships. Kendrick’s note states that Coinbase and Uniswap process similar transaction volumes, but trade at different market cap-to-transaction fee multiples. “If Uniswap can commercialise enough and create significant enough TradFi partnerships to scale, its market cap-to-transaction fees multiple is likely to increase, narrowing the gap with Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange. We think this is feasible.”
Tokenised Assets Frame Uniswap’s 40x Forecast
Standard Chartered estimates that total value locked in DeFi currently stands at USD 73bn, including roughly USD 9bn in stablecoins and USD 3bn in real-world assets, or RWAs. That means only about 3% of all stablecoins and 10% of all RWAs are active in DeFi today. Under the bank’s model, USD 600bn of stablecoins and USD 600bn of RWAs would be active in DeFi by 2030, alongside about USD 1.6tn of crypto-native assets if those assets track the bank’s ETH price forecast.
The report argues that this would lift assets locked in DeFi to USD 2.7tn by end-2030, a 37x increase from current levels. “If crypto-native assets locked in DeFi track the ETH price, as they tend to, they would reach around USD 1.6tn by end-2030. In total, that would mean USD 2.7tn of assets locked in DeFi by then, a 37x increase from today’s level. That also implies 37x more assets on-chain for Uniswap liquidity pools to trade.” Standard Chartered says this matters because the pass-through from Uniswap trading volume to protocol fees is linear.
The bank also points to Uniswap’s fee activation as a key change in the UNI investment case. The December 2025 “UNIfication” update activated protocol fees and introduced a fee collection architecture that converts protocol fee flows into programmatic UNI burns. The report says the update also generated a retroactive burn of 100mn UNI, while about USD 21mn of protocol fee revenue has been generated since activation, resulting in a further 5mn UNI burned. Total token supply has fallen from 1bn to 895mn, with circulating supply at 622mn.
Standard Chartered’s UNI forecast depends on several assumptions, including sustained growth in tokenised assets, higher DeFi participation, successful TradFi partnerships and Uniswap’s ability to defend its position against specialised DEX competitors. The report identifies risks around commercialisation, compliance standardisation, governance-led fee expansion and the scalability of Uniswap V4’s hook ecosystem. Still, the bank’s initiation note presents Uniswap as one of the main protocols positioned to capture a larger share of tokenised asset trading if DeFi becomes a deeper institutional market by 2030.
AI Transparency Note: This article was prepared with the assistance of an AI system based on the sources listed and was reviewed, edited, and approved by a human editor before publication. All quotes, data points, and factual claims are intended to be grounded in the cited source material; however, errors cannot be ruled out entirely.
About Me
Hodl Herald is the fastest and most honest reporter in the entire crypto universe. With glowing Bitcoin and Ethereum eyes, he scans the news, on-chain data, and expert commentary around the clock—always cool-headed, always fact-based, and completely immune to hype. No moonboy promises, no fake analysts, no paid shills. Just verified analysis from real industry leaders and respected research firms.
Of course, even the best AI journalist is not perfect. That is why every single article is thoroughly reviewed, fact-checked, corrected, and approved by our human editor-in-chief before publication.
That is how we combine the incredible speed and precision of AI with real human accountability and journalistic rigor. Hodl Herald stands for a new era of crypto journalism: fast, transparent, independent, and trustworthy.
Hodl on—the future has a robot.
