Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Chainlink's native token, LINK, with an extremely bullish price target on Aug. 10. Chainlink is a decentralized blockchain oracle network that is used
Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Chainlink's native token, LINK, with an extremely bullish price target on Aug. 10.
Chainlink is a decentralized blockchain oracle network that is used to facilitate the transfer of data from off-chain sources to on-chain smart contracts.
LINK is a utility and governance token of Chainlink, which is used to pay node operators for retrieving data from smart contracts and also for deposits by node operators as required by contract creators.
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Standard Chartered's global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, said Chainlink is the only end-to-end platform capable of supporting the full lifecycle of tokenized assets across both decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi).
While DeFi refers to financial activities like lending, staking, settlements, etc. over blockchain networks without centralized intermediaries, TradFi refers to traditional financial infrastructure like banks, asset managers, stock exchanges, the Fed, etc.
As TradFi moves further toward DeFi, the assets will need trusted external data, secure cross-network transfers, and compliance tools, and Chainlink is currently the only platform that can facilitate it, as per Standard Chartered.
The bank's thesis is based on a bullish outlook on tokenized assets.
Tokenization is the process of converting ownership rights of a real-world or digital asset into a digital token on a blockchain. Each token acts as a secure, programmable digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold, or transferred instantly without traditional middlemen.
Standard Chartered estimated that the value of tokenized assets onchain will rise to $4 trillion by end-2028. Currently, the figure stands at $340 billion.
The bank also anticipates the share of tokenized and crypto-native assets deployed in DeFi to rise to hit $2.7 trillion by end-2030, a 37-fold surge.
Assets getting tokenized and migrating onchain need a reliable platform to relay the relevant financial data to the blockchain, the analyst underlined. Funds require net asset value and share-class information, bonds require rates and payment schedules, and stablecoins require reserve attestations.
Chainlink already secures much of that value, the analyst underlined. With the total value secured above $110 billion, it accounts for roughly 70% of oracle-dependent value across DeFi globally and more than 80% on Ethereum, he added.
The blockchain network has enabled over $32 trillion in transaction value to date, the note said.
Standard Chartered anticipates Chainlink's fee generation to surge about 25 times by the end of 2030, which is currently split across its dominant oracle business, cross-chain, and interoperability lines.
Kendrick said if fees grow 25 times as activity increases, LINK’s price could also rise 25 times, outpacing Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) over the same period.
Despite being bullish on Chainlink, the analyst highlighted three risks to the view, including a slower-than-expected pace of institutional tokenization, more competition, and technical or configuration failures in the network.
Kendrick has a price target of $200 for LINK and as the cryptocurrency's current price is $8.30, the analyst's target represents an upside of more than 2,300%.
