Standard Chartered has issued a bullish forecast for Chainlink's LINK token, projecting it could reach $200 by 2030 — a roughly 25x increase from current levels near $8. The prediction is anchored in expected growth across the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors. The outlook arrives as major asset managers including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton have already launched tokenized funds on blockchain networks, lending early momentum to the institutional adoption thesis underpinning the forecast.

Standard Chartered's Price Milestones for LINK

Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered's global head of digital assets research, outlined a gradual price trajectory for LINK, according to a report by Investing.com. He expects the token to reach $13 by the end of 2026, followed by successive milestones of $41, $82, and $133, ultimately arriving at $200 by 2030. Kendrick has previously issued similarly ambitious crypto price targets, including forecasts for Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Kendrick projects that the value of tokenized assets on blockchain networks will increase approximately 12x by the end of 2028, growing from a current market size of $340 billion to $4 trillion. He also anticipates DeFi assets will expand roughly 37x to $2.7 trillion by 2030.

Standard Chartered's analysis positions Chainlink as a primary beneficiary of this expansion, given that the network charges fees for data delivery and cross-chain asset transfers. The bank estimates that Chainlink's fee revenue could grow approximately 25x through 2030.

Institutional Adoption and Infrastructure Demand

Despite relatively muted performance in the LINK token itself, Chainlink's fundamentals have continued to strengthen. Several major financial institutions are now utilizing Chainlink's services, including SWIFT, DTCC, Mastercard, and JPMorgan, Kendrick noted.

He expects off-chain institutional customers to account for a growing share of Chainlink's fee revenue as blockchain adoption across the financial sector deepens. Tokenized funds and bonds, Kendrick added, require regular access to data such as net asset values, interest rates, and reserve attestations, which could further increase demand for Chainlink's infrastructure. As oracle networks like Chainlink sit at the interface between off-chain data and on-chain applications, their role becomes critical infrastructure for institutions seeking to settle tokenized assets across different blockchains.

Standard Chartered also highlighted Chainlink's dominant market position. The bank's analysis estimates that Chainlink secures more than $110 billion in total value, representing approximately 70% of oracle-dependent DeFi value globally and over 80% on Ethereum. The lending protocol Aave V3 alone accounts for roughly 44% of Chainlink's secured value.

Analyst Perspective on LINK Accumulation

Crypto analyst Crypto Patel echoed a constructive view on LINK, identifying an accumulation zone between $5 and $8. The analyst set price targets of $20, $50, and $100 for the token, aligning partly with Standard Chartered's broader thesis that on-chain tokenized assets could reach approximately $4 trillion as the sector matures.

Source: The Market Periodical