Standard Chartered Initiates on Chainlink, Forecasts Over 2,000% Upside to $200 by 2030

Standard Chartered Bank has initiated coverage of Chainlink's LINK token, setting a long-term price target of $200 by the end of 2030. In a research note, the bank's analysts suggested this represents a potential upside of more than 2,000% from its current price of approximately $8.

The Bull Case for Tokenization

The forecast is anchored in the anticipated growth of asset tokenization and decentralized finance (DeFi). Geoff Kendrick, the bank's Global Head of Digital Assets Research, wrote that Chainlink is well-positioned to benefit directly as these sectors expand. The report describes Chainlink as the "market leader in bringing off-chain data on-chain" through its decentralized oracle network.

Standard Chartered projects that the market for on-chain tokenized assets will grow from roughly $340 billion today to $4 trillion by the end of 2028. The bank also forecasts that the value of active assets participating in DeFi will increase 37-fold to reach $2.7 trillion by the end of 2030.

Institutional Adoption and Revenue Growth

Chainlink currently provides secure on-chain connectivity for about 70% of the global DeFi market and over 80% of the DeFi market on Ethereum, having supported over $32 trillion in transaction value to date, according to the report. The bank highlighted that major institutions and corporations are already using Chainlink's services, including:

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• Swift
• The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC)
• Euroclear
• JPMorgan
• Mastercard
• UBS
• Fidelity
• S&P Global

The bank estimates that Chainlink's total fee revenue could grow approximately 25 times by 2030, with fees from traditional finance (TradFi) clients becoming an increasingly significant source of income alongside its DeFi base. Assuming a linear relationship between fee growth and token price, Kendrick suggested LINK could outperform both Ethereum and Bitcoin over the forecast period.

Price Trajectory and Key Risks

Standard Chartered provided a year-by-year price projection for the LINK token, expecting it to reach $13 by the end of 2026, $41 in 2027, $82 in 2028, and $133 in 2029, before ultimately hitting the $200 target in 2030.

However, the bank also noted several key risks to its forecast. These include a slower-than-expected pace of institutional tokenization, competitive pressure from other specialized service providers, and the potential for unforeseen technical setbacks.