The market at a crossroads: Standard Chartered predicts UNI at $100, Grayscale bets on decentralized AI, and Pudgy Penguins shuts down its mobile game
The morning of June 16 finds the cryptocurrency market in mixed sentiment. Bitcoin (BTC) opened the day lower, trading around $65,828, down 2% from its daily high of $67,248. Ethereum (ETH) is also showing a downward trend, hovering around $1,763. However, against the backdrop of a general correction, certain assets and landmark events stand out, setting the direction for the entire sector.
Standard Chartered: UNI — A New "Gold Mine"?
Banking giant Standard Chartered has published its first analytical report on the Uniswap protocol, predicting a 40-fold increase for the UNI token — from its current $2.70 to $100 by the end of 2030. According to the bank's analysts, the main driver will be the explosive growth of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) in DeFi: their volume could increase 37 times. This, in turn, will vastly expand Uniswap's liquidity pools. Head of Research Jeffrey Kendrick compared Uniswap to YouTube and Coinbase to Netflix, emphasizing that the former's open infrastructure lowers barriers to capital creation. Additionally, the UNIfication upgrade, which introduced token burning, has already reduced the supply from 1 billion to 895 million coins, adding bullish momentum. However, risks should not be overlooked: competition from niche DEXs and the need for deeper integration with TradFi remain significant challenges for Uniswap.
Grayscale: Anthropic Incident Fuels Decentralized AI Fire
Grayscale analysts highlighted a recent U.S. government decision requiring Anthropic to restrict access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for foreign users. In response, Anthropic disabled them for everyone. According to Zach Pandl, Head of Research at Grayscale, this incident vividly demonstrates the risks of centralized control over advanced AI technologies. Against this backdrop, the TAO token of the Bittensor project, which Pandl called "bitcoin for AI," surged 30% in 12 hours, reaching a three-week high of $283. This event sends a powerful signal to the market: demand for decentralized and censorship-resistant AI solutions will only grow.
Pudgy Penguins: Betting on Browser, Not Mobile Screens
Prominent NFT project Pudgy Penguins has announced the closure of its mobile game Pudgy Party, launched in August 2025 and amassing over 1 million downloads. The team is reallocating resources to the browser-based project Pudgy World, which they call the ecosystem's flagship gaming product. This decision reflects the broader challenges of Web3 gaming: finding sustainable monetization in this niche remains elusive for most. The example of Fishing Frenzy, which also announced its closure, only confirms the rule. Although the NFT market has partially recovered to $1.5 billion, it is still far from the peak of $17 billion in 2022. Pudgy Penguins' consolidation of efforts around a single, more scalable product is a logical and likely correct move in the current environment.
My take: The market is in a phase of reassessment. Institutional giants like Standard Chartered and Grayscale are not just observing but are making bold bets on specific sectors — DeFi and decentralized AI. This suggests that "smart money" sees long-term potential where retail investors currently see only volatility. The closure of Pudgy Party is another reminder that in crypto gaming, it's not the fastest that survives, but the most adaptable.