Standard Chartered Sees DeFi Growing 37-Fold by 2030 on Tokenized Asset Inflows

Decentralized finance could grow 37-fold from current levels by 2030 as tokenized assets expand, according to Standard Chartered.

Cointelegraph reported on June 15 that Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s head of digital asset research, wrote in a report that total value locked in DeFi would reach $2.7 trillion by the end of 2030.

Kendrick said the next wealth-creation opportunity in digital assets would come from DeFi protocols. He projects the amount of tokenized assets used in DeFi will increase 37-fold by 2030.

He estimates that about 3% of stablecoins and 10% of tokenized real-world assets are currently used in DeFi. By 2030, that share will rise to 30% from about 3.5% now, he said.

Standard Chartered previously projected that the market for tokenized real-world assets excluding stablecoins would grow to $2 trillion by 2028. It expects tokenized money market funds and U.S. equities to lead that growth.

The report said tokenization could act as a catalyst for large inflows into DeFi. It also said tokenization alone does not automatically guarantee liquidity.

Chris Kim, chief executive officer of Axis, said liquidity could fragment if the same asset is issued across multiple blockchains and in different formats. That could create price discrepancies and transaction costs.

Kendrick said Uniswap could emerge as a key hub for trading tokenized assets. He said the decentralized exchange has scale, brand recognition and operating experience across multiple market cycles. Traditional financial institutions will prioritize security and trust when moving tokenized assets on-chain, he added.

He also said that if Uniswap secures enough partnerships with traditional financial firms to expand commercialization, the gap between its valuation and fee revenue could narrow. Its valuation gap with Coinbase could also shrink.