Catenaa, Tuesday, May 26, 2026- Standard Chartered projects that tokenized assets on blockchain networks will reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028, with decentralized finance protocols expected to become major beneficiaries of the rapid migration of traditional financial activity onto digital rails.
The forecast combines the bank’s earlier projections of a $2 trillion stablecoin market and a separate $2 trillion tokenized real-world asset sector by 2028.
Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, said decentralized finance gains a major advantage from “composability,” allowing digital assets to simultaneously generate yield, function as collateral and remain liquid within shared blockchain infrastructure.
Kendrick argued that traditional finance systems cannot easily replicate such multi-purpose asset functionality without relying on multiple intermediaries, settlement layers and operational costs.
The report highlighted BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund as a major example of blockchain-based financial composability in practice.
The tokenized fund currently manages roughly $2.85 billion in assets while simultaneously supporting yield generation, collateralization and around-the-clock trading activity across decentralized finance systems.
Standard Chartered said institutional-grade asset tokenization is likely to drive the next major growth phase for blockchain finance.
The bank argued established DeFi protocols with proven security and liquidity are positioned to capture most of the resulting transaction activity as traditional financial firms increasingly adopt blockchain infrastructure.
The report also highlighted rising institutional use of decentralized lending systems.
Aave, currently the largest DeFi lending platform, has reportedly reached asset levels comparable to some mid-sized US banks.
Meanwhile, a bitcoin lending partnership between Coinbase and Morpho has processed roughly $1.75 billion in loans across more than 22,000 borrowers.
Standard Chartered said pending US crypto legislation, particularly the proposed Clarity Act, could accelerate the migration of financial assets from traditional systems into decentralized finance infrastructure.
