Uniswap’s UNI token climbs 12% in 24 hours and trades at $2.92. Standard Chartered officially initiates coverage on the token with a $6.50 target by the end of 2026 and a $100 target by the end of 2030. The bank is betting on a 37x expansion of tokenized assets active in DeFi by the end of the decade.
Key Takeaways
- UNI rises 12% in 24 hours to $2.92 on the back of fresh institutional coverage.
- Standard Chartered sets two milestones ($6.50 by end of 2026 and $100 by end of 2030).
- The fee switch activated in late 2025 burns roughly 1% of the UNI supply each year.
A 40x Target Anchored in the RWA Thesis
Standard Chartered becomes the first major bank to attach a specific price tag to UNI. Geoffrey Kendrick’s note sets the target at $100 by the end of 2030, with an intermediate step at $6.50 by the end of 2026. Compared to the $2.50 reference level used in the report, the implied upside is around 40 times.
The core driver of the scenario can be summed up in one projection. Standard Chartered expects the value of tokenized assets active in DeFi to grow 37x between now and the end of 2030. This trajectory assumes the share of tokenized assets used in decentralized finance rises from 3.5% today to 30% by the end of the decade.
For the broader tokenized asset market, the bank projects a jump from $340 billion today to $4 trillion by 2028. Uniswap is flagged as one of the direct beneficiaries, since its liquidity pools would have roughly 37x more assets available for trading.
This thesis aligns with the dynamics seen on other major altcoins in recent weeks, similar to Bittensor TAO breaking out of its bearish channel in early June. Institutional flows are redrawing the altcoin hierarchy by favoring protocols that can absorb institutional-grade volumes.
The Fee Switch Restores Token Power
The second pillar of the Standard Chartered case rests on the internal mechanics of the token. Since the activation of the fee switch in late 2025, Uniswap burns roughly 1% of the UNI supply each year. This deflationary pressure changes the token’s trajectory, having been viewed until then as a plain governance coin without yield.
Supply figures back up the effect. The total dropped from 1 billion to 895 million tokens, and circulating supply now sits at 622 million. The bank ties this scarcity dynamic directly to the protocol’s future valuation in the DEX segment.
The timing of the report lines up with a rotation of crypto ETF flows toward altcoins. Bitcoin ETFs lost $64 million on Monday while Ethereum ETFs pulled in $22.5 million and the Hyperliquid, XRP and Solana vehicles added several million more. UNI is outperforming the broader average, with its 12% session gain.
Markets are reading this signal as an institutional stamp on the DeFi-RWA thesis, a narrative that had struggled to land since the spring crash. Standard Chartered’s coverage potentially opens the door to similar notes on AAVE or COMP in the coming weeks.
Also on Cryptonomic:
- BNB Chain Hits $3.6B in RWA as BNB Stalls Below $617
- Bittensor (TAO) Jumps 15.8% Breaking the Bearish Channel
- Bitcoin Hits $65K as Trump Pushes Iran Peace Deal
Execution Risks Remain Real
Standard Chartered does not hide the weaknesses of the scenario. The bank flags two major risks capable of breaking the trajectory. First, the competition from smaller DEXs that could build better products on specific use cases, in particular the derivatives segments or monolithic blockchains.
Second, capturing tokenized RWA volume requires a commercialization effort that DeFi-native protocols are not used to running. Partnerships with traditional financial institutions become the critical variable. Without them, the $100 scenario falls out of reach.
Beyond Standard Chartered, other players are starting to integrate these assumptions into their own models. The RWA thesis is now shared by BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and Circle, which lends credibility to the $4 trillion projection for 2028. The open question is which protocols will capture this flow.
For UNI holders, the short term bet plays out on the token’s ability to hold momentum above $3 in the coming sessions. Over the medium term, the health of the fee switch and the growth of fees generated by Uniswap will validate or invalidate the Standard Chartered thesis.
Follow the story on Cryptonomic.



Pingback: HYPE ETF Flows Hit $172M as Token Tops $76 ATH - Cryptonomic