A major global bank has told Wall Street that a DeFi governance token could increase fortyfold. Standard Chartered initiated coverage on Uniswap’s UNI token, setting a price target of $100 by the end of 2030, up from roughly $2.50.
Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s Global Head of Digital Assets Research, is the lead analyst. The core argument positions Uniswap as the primary on-chain trading venue for a rapidly expanding universe of tokenized real-world assets, including treasuries, bonds, equities, and real estate.
The bank estimates that tokenized assets could reach $4 trillion by 2028. They project that DeFi total value locked will hit approximately $2.7 trillion by 2030, creating a massive addressable market. Uniswap operates as a pure decentralized exchange with no order book, central matching engine, or intermediary. Liquidity providers deposit assets into smart contract pools, and traders swap against those pools automatically.
Standard Chartered’s staged targets provide checkpoints. If UNI does not approach $6.50 by the end of 2026, the thesis is clearly off track. The token does not currently capture protocol revenue directly, meaning protocol upgrades enabling fee switches would be necessary catalysts. This formal coverage normalizes the asset class for institutional allocators who need research coverage to justify positions.