Standard Chartered: DeFi market will grow to $2.7 trillion by 2030 — RWA and tokenization will become catalysts
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is on the verge of massive growth. My analysis shows that the total value locked (TVL) in protocols could reach $2.7 trillion by the end of 2030. This represents a 37-fold increase from current levels.
The key drivers of this explosive growth will be real-world assets (RWA) and the development of on-chain protocols. Today, only 3% of stablecoin supply and 10% of tokenized RWAs are utilized in DeFi. By the end of the decade, I estimate this share will grow to 30%.
Reaching the $2.7 trillion mark will require a ninefold increase in the share of tokenized value used in DeFi protocols. However, the path to this will not be smooth. Many experts rightly point to the problems of liquidity fragmentation — issuing the same asset on different blockchains creates isolated pools, increasing operational costs.
It is important to understand: tokenization itself is not a magic tool that turns illiquid assets into liquid ones. It is merely infrastructure, not a panacea.
In this context, Uniswap deserves special attention. The platform could become a central hub for trading RWAs. Institutional investors are likely to choose it due to its high reputation and time-tested security. Partnerships with traditional finance could narrow the gap in Uniswap's market capitalization with the giant Coinbase.
Interestingly, advisors have already shifted their focus from Bitcoin to stablecoins and RWAs. This confirms a paradigm shift: the market is moving from speculative trading to real economic utility.
My expert assessment: Standard Chartered's forecast looks ambitious but not fantastical. The main risk is not technological limitations, but regulatory uncertainty. If major jurisdictions fail to create clear rules for tokenized assets, growth could slow down. However, the baseline scenario remains positive: DeFi is evolving from a niche experiment into a full-fledged financial ecosystem.