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Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, published the bank’s first-ever Uniswap coverage note on June 15, 2026, setting a $100 price target for UNI by the end of 2030.
He argued the token could outperform both Bitcoin and Ethereum through the end of the decade. Kendrick’s thesis is built on a specific market transition he believes is now underway. But is it really?
Standard Chartered expects tokenized assets in DeFi to grow from roughly $340 billion today to $4 trillion by the end of 2028. The proportion of those assets actively participating in DeFi is projected to rise from about 3.5% currently to 30% by 2030, pushing total value locked across DeFi protocols to approximately $2.7 trillion, a 37% increase from where things stand today.
NEW: Standard Chartered initiates coverage of Uniswap.
The bank forecasts UNI will rise from roughly $2.50 today to $100 by 2030 — a 40x increase.
The thesis: tokenized assets active in DeFi grow 37x this decade, and Uniswap becomes a core piece of trading infrastructure for… pic.twitter.com/LWEc3XBXxA
— Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank) June 15, 2026
Uniswap sits at the center of that thesis for a specific reason. Kendrick wrapped UNI’s value around Uniswap’s role as neutral trading infrastructure rather than just a retail decentralized exchange. As tokenized stocks, bonds and real-world assets move onchain, they need venues where they can trade against each other, against stablecoins and against collateral. Uniswap’s automated market maker model and established liquidity depth make it the clearest candidate for that role.
— Uniswap (@Uniswap) June 13, 2026
The protocol’s institutional integration is already underway, starting with BlackRock’s tokenized BUIDL fund becoming tradable via UniswapX in February 2026. Since tokenized stocks launched on Uniswap in June 2026, over $9.1 billion has been swapped through the protocol’s RWA pools, with more than 2.6 million transactions processed across those pools.
Standard Chartered’s price path calls for UNI to reach $6.50 by end of 2026, $20 in 2027, $40 in 2028, $65 in 2029 and $100 by end of 2030. Each checkpoint gives investors a concrete benchmark to measure whether the thesis is tracking or falling apart.
The December 2026 target is the most immediate test, UNI needs to more than double from current levels in the next six months for the roadmap to stay on course.
Citi’s June 2026 tokenization report pointed in the same direction on market size, projecting a $5.5 trillion base-case tokenized asset market by 2030 and an $8.2 trillion bull case, but added a critical counterweight.
That clearly spells out what Uniswap’s risk is. If tokenization grows but the value stays within bank platforms, broker-dealer networks and approved marketplaces, it means open DeFi plays a limited role. BlackRock’s BUIDL has already shown DeFi rails can stay gated, the fund is tradable via UniswapX but only for approved institutional counterparties.
However, Uniswap being part of the institutional stack does not automatically mean it captures the open, permissionless trading volume that Standard Chartered’s model assumes. The bank itself flagged multiple risks including competition from Solana DEXs and aggregators and potential regulatory delays in tokenization timelines.
The $100 target is the most ambitious long-term price call any major bank has issued for a DeFi token. It’s good for the ecosystem and the hope is to get more like it.
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