Aave could soar to $3,500 by 2030 on DeFi revival, says StanChart

Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick has initiated coverage of decentralized lending protocol Aave $AAVE$71.43, forecasting the token could climb to $3,500 by the end of 2030 as the platform benefits from renewed growth in decentralized finance and tokenized real-world assets.

Kendrick’s target implies a roughly 50-fold increase from $AAVE‘s current price near $70 and would see the token outperform both bitcoin BTC$62,599.56 and ether (ETH) over the period, according to the report.

“We think Aave has moved past the April cybertheft incident as assets start to return to the platform,” said Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered in a new report. The protocol appears to have recovered from the episode and remains well-positioned to maintain its dominance in onchain lending, he added.

The April collapse of KelpDAO’s rsETH bridge sent shockwaves through DeFi after attackers used roughly $290 million of stolen tokens as collateral on Aave to borrow real assets.

The incident left Aave facing potential losses of up to $230 million, sparked a rush for exits by depositors and underscored how vulnerabilities in one protocol can quickly spread across the broader DeFi ecosystem.

Kendrick compared Aave to an automated, blockchain-based bank that operates without employees or discretionary decision-making. At its peak in October 2025, the protocol held roughly $75 billion in deposits, a level the analyst said would have ranked it among the 30 largest banks in the U.S.

Looking ahead, Kendrick expects the value of tokenized assets actively used within DeFi applications to increase 37-fold by the end of the decade. Because Aave’s revenue model is tied closely to lending activity and deposits, the bank anticipates the protocol’s growth to translate relatively directly into gains for the $AAVE token.

The report also pointed to the potential restart of Aave’s token buyback program as a further catalyst. The protocol’s Horizon initiative, which is designed to support lending against tokenized real-world assets in a permissioned environment, could help attract traditional financial institutions and accelerate adoption.

Despite recent market weakness across digital assets, the broader backdrop for crypto prices is improving and Aave is expected to be among the beneficiaries as capital returns to DeFi, the report added.

Aave was 5.6% higher over the last 24 hours, trading around $76.

Read more: DeFi shaken by $292 million hack, but showing resilience, Standard Chartered says