Market at a crossroads: Standard Chartered sees UNI at $100, Grayscale bets on decentralized AI, and Pudgy Penguins shuts down mobile game
The morning of June 16 sees the crypto market with mixed dynamics. Bitcoin (BTC) started the day with a slight decline, trading around $65,828, after touching a low of $65,468 and a high of $67,248 during the day. Ethereum (ETH) is also showing downward pressure, sitting at $1,763. However, the overall picture is far from uniform — there are notable surges among the top 100 coins by market cap. The leader in daily growth is Jito (+27.32%), while SKYAI has strengthened the most over the week (+62.53%). At the same time, Audiera lost 27.88% in a day, and DeXe lost 12.40% over seven days. Among major assets, Hyperliquid shows the best performance (+6.20% daily and +13.59% weekly), while Dogecoin and Tron are experiencing losses.
Standard Chartered: Bullish Forecast for Uniswap
Banking giant Standard Chartered has published its first analytical report on the Uniswap protocol, forecasting a 40-fold increase in the UNI token — from the current $2.70 to $100 by the end of 2030. According to analysts, the key driver will be the massive influx of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) into DeFi: their volume is expected to grow 37 times, which will multiply the liquidity of Uniswap pools. Head of Research Geoffrey Kendrick drew a bold analogy, comparing Uniswap to YouTube and Coinbase to Netflix. In his words, Uniswap provides open infrastructure for creating liquidity, radically lowering capital barriers. An additional catalyst is the UNIfication upgrade, which launched token burning: the UNI supply has already decreased from 1 billion to 895 million. However, risks remain — competition from niche DEXs and the need for closer integration with traditional finance.
Grayscale: Anthropic Incident Sparks Interest in Decentralized AI
Grayscale analysts pointed to the incident with Anthropic as a strong argument in favor of decentralized artificial intelligence. To recap: the U.S. government ordered Anthropic to restrict access to the Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for foreigners due to national security concerns, after which the company completely disabled them for all users. According to Grayscale Head of Research Zach Pandl, this case clearly demonstrates the risks of centralized control over advanced AI technologies. The market reaction was swift: the TAO token of the Bittensor project, which Pandl called "the bitcoin for AI," surged 30% in 12 hours, reaching a three-week high of $283.
Pudgy Penguins Shuts Down Mobile Game
Popular NFT project Pudgy Penguins has announced the cessation of development and closure of the mobile game Pudgy Party, launched in August 2025 and having amassed over 1 million downloads. The team is redirecting resources to the browser-based project Pudgy World, which is described as the ecosystem's flagship gaming product. This decision reflects the general challenges of Web3 games: earlier, the Fishing Frenzy project also announced its closure, failing to find a sustainable monetization model. Despite the NFT market growing to $1.5 billion, it remains far from its 2022 peak of $17 billion.
Analyst Comment: Standard Chartered's forecast for UNI looks ambitious, but it is backed by fundamental shifts in tokenomics and growing institutional interest in RWAs. As for decentralized AI, the Anthropic story is just the first warning. Regulatory pressure will only increase, and projects like Bittensor could become key beneficiaries of this trend. Meanwhile, the closure of Pudgy Party is another reminder that even strong brands struggle to find product-market fit in crypto games.