Standard Chartered says tokenized assets entering DeFi could boost deposits into Aave, helping the lending protocol recover lost market share.
Standard Chartered has identified Aave as a likely beneficiary of tokenized assets moving into decentralized finance, according to a research note published on June 24. The bank said the trend could help the lending protocol rebuild its position in the market.
Geoff Kendrick, the bank's global head of digital assets research, wrote that active tokenized assets entering DeFi could drive more deposits into Aave. "Despite recent setbacks, we are bullish on the outlook for Aave, the largest lending protocol," Kendrick wrote in the note.
The bank said Aave's recent performance had been weighed down by a broader decline in digital asset prices. It also pointed to the fallout from an April cybertheft involving Kelp DAO, a $292 million incident that affected Aave and contributed to a decline in the protocol's lending market share as assets exited the platform.
Both Negatives Are Poised To Fade
Kendrick said he expects both of those pressures to ease in the coming months. "We forecast significant upside for digital asset token prices into year-end, and we think Aave has moved beyond the April incident," he wrote.
The research note said Aave's deposit base reached about $75 billion in October 2025, a level that would have ranked alongside the 30th-largest US bank by deposits. Kendrick said Standard Chartered expects Aave to recover part of that scale as tokenized assets become more widely used as collateral and as sources of liquidity within DeFi.
Related Article: What Is Aave and How Does It Work?
Tokenization Thesis Extends to Lending
The Aave forecast extends Standard Chartered's broader tokenization thesis from decentralized trading into lending markets. The bank sees the protocol as a potential venue for borrowing against tokenized real-world assets.
In an earlier research note, Standard Chartered said assets locked in DeFi could reach $2.7 trillion by 2030, driven by real-world assets and other crypto-native assets moving through on-chain protocols.
Kendrick also pointed to decentralized exchange Uniswap as a possible hub for tokenized markets. He cited the platform's scale, brand recognition, and history of operating through multiple crypto market cycles.
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