Standard Chartered sets $100 target for Uniswap’s UNI

Standard Chartered set a $100 price target for Uniswap’s UNI token for the end of 2030 and tied the forecast to large-scale tokenization and a shift of tokenized assets into open decentralized finance liquidity.

The bank’s note assumes tokenized assets could reach $4 trillion by 2028 and that the share of those assets active in DeFi could rise from about 3.5% today to roughly 30% by 2030. Under that scenario, DeFi could hold more than $2 trillion by 2030, the note projects. The forecast links valuation to liquidity: issuance of tokenized funds, securities and stablecoins is one step; trading those assets across broad, composable pools is what would generate sustained fee revenue for automated market makers.

On June 16, UNI traded near $3.02, with a market capitalisation around $1.9 billion and 24-hour trading volume roughly $354 million. Uniswap as a protocol held about $2.89 billion in total value locked across chains and reported more than $50 million in fees over the prior 30 days. Those figures reflect current protocol activity but are well below levels implied by a $100 UNI valuation.

The bank’s forecast depends on several linked assumptions. Tokenization must grow substantially, a large portion of those tokens must be actively traded in open DeFi rather than remaining in permissioned systems, and Uniswap must capture a meaningful share of that trading activity. The note references a governance route that would convert protocol revenue into token economics through protocol fees and token-burn mechanics, which would require specific governance votes and fee settings.

A live institutional example cited in the report is BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), which became tradable through UniswapX using a request-for-quote framework and whitelisted participants. That integration allows swaps into USDC on UniswapX while keeping participation restricted to pre-qualified investors. On June 16, the fund had about $2.37 billion in assets and 108 holders; its initial launch terms included a $5 million minimum investment and transfer restrictions.

Other institutional research provides a range of tokenization outcomes. A 2024 paper by Standard Chartered and Synpulse projected tokenized real-world assets could reach $30.1 trillion by 2034. A June 2026 institutional report projected a $5.5 trillion base case and an $8.2 trillion bull case for tokenized assets by 2030 and noted that hybrid models with institution-controlled issuance and settlement may dominate. The Financial Stability Board has described tokenization as small to date and highlighted frictions such as limited-access structures, interoperability gaps, settlement-asset constraints and platform fragmentation.

Standard Chartered’s $100 UNI target rests on issuance growing into tradable inventory, active trading flows in open pools, durable fee income for protocols and governance and commercial decisions that align fee mechanics with token economics. The bank’s forecast presents a path that requires changes in how institutions issue, settle and allow transfer of tokenized assets so they can trade in broadly accessible liquidity pools.