- Standard Chartered expects tokenized assets and stablecoins to hit $4 trillion by 2028.
- Geoffrey Kendrick says DeFi offers faster and cheaper financial services than traditional banking.
- Standard Chartered’s Zodia Custody move signals rising institutional confidence in crypto infrastructure.
Standard Chartered is betting big on the future of decentralized finance, predicting that tokenized assets on blockchains could grow to $4 trillion by 2028. The bank expects stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets to each account for about $2 trillion.
Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, said decentralized finance can do things traditional banking systems struggle to match. He explained that blockchain networks allow investors to earn yield, borrow against assets, and keep liquidity moving at the same time — all on a shared digital ledger.
By contrast, traditional finance often relies on multiple intermediaries, separate systems, and higher costs to deliver similar services.
DeFi Protocols Gain Institutional Attention
Kendrick pointed to BlackRock’s BUIDL fund as an example of how tokenized finance is starting to work in practice. The blockchain-based Treasury fund manages about $2.85 billion in assets and can be used across decentralized finance platforms.
He said the opportunity for growth remains massive because traditional financial assets still outweigh blockchain-based assets by nearly 1,000 to 1. Kendrick expects that gap to narrow as banks and large asset managers move deeper into tokenization and decentralized finance.
This change is already evident in the crypto lending space. As per the report, the decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform Aave would be one of the top 40 U.S. banks in terms of assets. The lending of stablecoins through decentralized platforms is also experiencing a rapid increase, with the daily trading volume being anywhere from $1.5 billion to $2 billion.
Standard Chartered Expands Crypto Strategy
This overlap between traditional finance and decentralized finance is evident in the collaboration seen in companies such as Coinbase and Morpho.
Coinbase takes care of the user interface and custody, while Morpho is responsible for the lending protocol and the liquidity provided. The bitcoin collateralized lending product of theirs has reached $1.75 billion in loans for 22,000 customers.
At the same time, Standard Chartered is expanding its own crypto ambitions by seeking full ownership of Zodia Custody. The move reflects how major financial institutions are racing to strengthen their position in digital asset custody and regulated blockchain services as regulatory clarity improves.
Crypto analyst Merlijn The Trader summed up the shift in a post on X: “This is how banks respond to regulatory clarity. They don’t wait. They acquire.”
Additionally, Standard Chartered recently appointed Manus Costello as permanent chief financial officer as CEO Bill Winters continues broader restructuring efforts across the bank.
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