Standard Chartered Says Arbitrum Could Outperform Bitcoin and Ether Through 2030
Standard Chartered, a leading global financial institution, has expressed optimism about the potential growth of the layer-2 network Arbitrum through 2030. The bank's experts point out that as tokenization advances, traditional financial firms are increasingly moving assets onchain, creating significant new revenue sources for Arbitrum beyond typical crypto-native activity. Standard Chartered’s analysts forecast a multiple-fold increase in the ARB token price that would substantially outperform Bitcoin and Ether over the same period.
Key Growth Drivers for Arbitrum
Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, highlighted the attractive economics of Arbitrum: the network takes a 10% share of net protocol revenue generated by companies building on top of it. A notable example is Robinhood Chain, developed by the brokerage Robinhood.
Impact of Robinhood Chain Launch on Arbitrum’s Economics
The Robinhood Chain launch materially changed Arbitrum’s economic landscape. At the current run rate, the network is projected to generate $5 million in revenue in September, more than five times its revenue before the Robinhood Chain debuted in July. This growth directly supports the bullish price outlook for Arbitrum’s native token, ARB.
ARB Price Forecast Through 2030
Kendrick expects ARB to reach as high as $10 by 2030, representing roughly a 70-fold increase from current levels around $0.14 (as of early September). This forecast significantly exceeds Standard Chartered’s return projections for Bitcoin and Ether over the same timeframe. Additionally, ARB has gained 86% over the past month, underscoring strong recent momentum.
Risks and the Role of Asset Tokenization
The chief risks to the ARB price projection include a slower-than-expected pace of asset tokenization and increased competition from alternative blockchains. Nevertheless, Standard Chartered's bullish outlook is based on the anticipated growth of the tokenized real-world asset market—which currently stands at nearly $39 billion and is forecasted to reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028. Layer-2 networks like Arbitrum, which enable companies to build their own chains and earn a share of generated revenues, stand to benefit significantly from this trend.
Why it matters
This news is significant because it illustrates a shift among major financial institutions from skepticism to active endorsement and positive growth forecasts for layer-2 digital assets like Arbitrum. It underscores the increasing impact of tokenization of real-world assets on shaping the crypto industry, with the potential to fundamentally transform the digital finance landscape by extending blockchain applications beyond purely speculative assets. This shift creates new opportunities for developers and traditional financial players alike, encouraging further innovation adoption and scaling of the market.
Prepared from the source material with AI-assisted editing and checked against the supplied facts.
Open original source ↗