Standard Chartered Says Sky’s SKY Token Could Rise Fivefold by End-2028

Standard Chartered said SKY, the native token of decentralized-finance platform Sky, could climb fivefold from current levels by the end of 2028.

Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital-asset research, wrote in a report that SKY could rise to $0.325 by the end of 2028 from about $0.065 now, according to crypto media outlet The Block on Sept. 11.

Kendrick described Sky as the “central bank of DeFi.” The platform issues the stablecoins USDS and DAI and lends funds to agents at wholesale rates. In the off-chain world, Sky would be the equivalent of a central bank, while the agents resemble commercial banks that borrow at wholesale rates and deploy the capital.

Sky’s three main agents are Spark, Grove and Obex. Together, they are managing $5.9 billion of borrowed USDS. Spark focuses on crypto lending through protocols such as Aave and Morpho. Grove allocates capital to real-world asset products from BlackRock, Janus Henderson and Apollo. Obex is tasked with bringing external professional capital managers into the Sky ecosystem. The three agents have a combined borrowing limit of $17.5 billion, roughly three times the current amount borrowed.

Kendrick laid out two stages for a rise in SKY’s price. First, once Sky secures a sufficient financial buffer, it can increase the share of earnings distributed to token holders. Sky’s reserve buffer currently stands at about $90 million and, at the current pace, could reach $150 million in about eight months. After that, additional borrowing by the agents could lift distributable earnings by another two to three times.

Kendrick estimated that the value accruing to SKY holders would increase fivefold from current levels by the end of 2028, leading to a fivefold gain in the token’s price. The forecast assumes SKY’s staking yield, currently about 4.2%, remains unchanged. He classified SKY primarily as a staking-yield token and viewed buybacks as playing a relatively small role.

As a key risk, Kendrick cited the possibility that demand for yield-bearing stablecoins may grow more slowly than expected. He maintained his earlier forecast that the overall stablecoin market will reach $2 trillion by the end of 2028, while adding that uncertainty remains over how much demand will flow into yield-bearing stablecoins such as Sky and Ethena.