Standard Chartered Says Tokenization Could Channel Trillions of Dollars Into DeFi

Aave is a decentralized lending protocol that allows users to earn interest by depositing crypto assets or borrow against overcollateralized positions. Standard Chartered believes the migration of tokenized real-world assets into DeFi will broaden the sources of collateral and liquidity. If Aave restores its deposit base, it could reassert its leadership in onchain lending and become an important gauge of institutional DeFi adoption.

Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Aave on June 24, 2026, forecasting that the AAVE token could reach $3,500 by the end of 2030—a 50-fold increase from roughly $70 when the report was published. Aave deposits fell from $44 billion to $23 billion following the $292 million KelpDAO attack on April 18, while its market share dropped from a pre-attack average of 59% to 38%.

Standard Chartered says real-world asset (RWA) tokenization is bringing traditional financial products such as bonds and funds onto blockchains, expanding the decentralized finance (DeFi) market alongside crypto-native assets. The trend matters because DeFi protocols could become a new channel through which the digital-asset generation allocates wealth and accesses financial services.

Standard Chartered's latest forecast projects that assets locked in DeFi will grow 37-fold to $2.7 trillion by the end of 2030. As tokenized RWAs and crypto-native assets move more rapidly into on-chain finance, the share of tokenized assets used in DeFi is expected to rise from 3.5% to 30%, becoming a key driver of market expansion in the coming years.