Market at the Start: Bitcoin Corrects, Standard Chartered Predicts UNI at $100, and Grayscale Bets on Decentralized AI
The morning of June 16 finds the crypto market in a moderate correction. Bitcoin (BTC) started the day with a decline: at the time of analysis, it is trading near the $65,828 mark, having corrected from the overnight high of $67,248. Ether (ETH) is also showing negative dynamics, dropping to $1,763. Nevertheless, the overall picture is far from pessimistic — several fundamental catalysts are clearly emerging on the horizon.
Standard Chartered: UNI target of $100 by 2030
British banking giant Standard Chartered has released its first analytical report on the Uniswap protocol, stating that the UNI token could grow 40 times to $100 by the end of the decade. According to analysts, the key driver will be the explosive growth of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) in DeFi. The volume of such assets is expected to increase 37-fold, which will directly expand Uniswap's liquidity pools. Geoffrey Kendrick, head of the bank's research department, compares Uniswap to YouTube and Coinbase to Netflix, emphasizing that the former's open infrastructure lowers barriers to capital creation. An additional bullish factor is the UNIfication upgrade, which has already reduced the token's circulating supply from 1 billion to 895 million through burning. However, key risks remain: growing competition from niche DEXs and the need for closer integration with traditional finance.
Grayscale: Anthropic incident as an argument for decentralized AI
Analysts at Grayscale Investments have highlighted the recent decision by the U.S. government, which ordered Anthropic to restrict access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for foreign users due to national security concerns. In response, Anthropic disabled these models for everyone. According to Zach Pandl, head of research at Grayscale, this incident clearly demonstrates the risks of centralized control over advanced AI technologies. Against this backdrop, the TAO token of the Bittensor protocol, which Pandl calls "bitcoin for AI," surged 30% in 12 hours, reaching a three-week high of $283. The market is clearly signaling: demand for decentralized and censorship-resistant AI solutions is growing.
Pudgy Penguins shuts down mobile game
The well-known NFT project Pudgy Penguins has announced the cessation of development and closure of the mobile game Pudgy Party, launched in August 2025. Despite over 1 million downloads, the team is reallocating resources to the browser-based project Pudgy World, which they call the flagship gaming product of the ecosystem. The closure of Pudgy Party reflects general difficulties in the Web3 gaming segment: this week, the Fishing Frenzy project also announced it would cease operations, having failed to find a sustainable business model. Although the NFT market is recovering, its current volume of $1.5 billion is still far from the peak of $17 billion in 2022.
My view: Standard Chartered's forecast for UNI looks ambitious but not without logic in the context of real-world asset tokenization. However, investors should remember that the horizon to 2030 is a marathon, not a sprint. As for Bittensor, the Anthropic incident has become a powerful catalyst, but the question of scaling and the real utility of decentralized AI networks remains open. The market is still searching for anchor points between the BTC correction and new narratives.