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LivestreamMenuThe token tied to the Chainlink blockchain could rocket more than 2,400% from current levels, fueled by the growth of tokenization of stocks and other real assets, according to Standard Chartered. The British bank began research coverage of the Chainlink token Monday, forecasting a price of $200 by the end of 2030, up from the current level of about $8, on expectations that tokenized assets will rise to $4 trillion by the end 2028, from around $340 billion today. Chainlink is a provider of infrastructure for decentralized finance, or DeFi, currently supports about 70% of DeFi markets globally and has enabled more than $32 trillion in transaction value, Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick said in a note Monday. “These assets will require trusted data, secure interoperability between networks, privacy preserving compliance, and integration with existing financial systems; only Chainlink is currently equipped to provide all of these,” Kendrick said. Increasing use Traditional finance firms are increasingly starting to use the provider more. Chainlink counts Swift, the U.S. Depository Trust & Clearance Corporation (DTCC), JPMorgan, Mastercard, UBS, SBI Holdings, Fidelity, WisdomTree and S & P Global among its users. “As it seeks to better serve traditional finance (TradFi), Chainlink has expanded beyond dominating the data layer to offer interoperability, compliance and privacy solutions,” Kendrick added. “It is the only end-to-end platform capable of supporting the full lifecycle of tokenized assets across both DeFi and TradFi.” The recommendation comes as investor enthusiasm for risk assets has been shifting away from speculative crypto coins, as prices fail to rally after recent declines, and toward hotter corners of the market, including prediction markets, perpetual futures and IPOs. At the same time, the crypto industry is increasingly making the case for crypto as technology that could underpin the next generation of financial infrastructure rather than an online casino — with tokenization, stablecoins and blockchain-based financial markets emerging as some of the sector’s most closely watched growth areas. The implied 25-fold increase from Chainlink’s current price is dependent on successful execution and expansion of the tokenized-asset economy. As tokenized assets continue to grow, investors should watch whether Chainlink’s fees expand and if institutions continue to choose its technology as the standard infrastructure layer, Kendrick said. On the flipside, delays in institutional adoption, weaker-than-expected monetization or competition from specialist infrastructure providers like Pyth Network or Wormhole could undermine the valuation. —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.Read More
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