Aave positioned for recovery as tokenized assets flow into DeFi, Standard Chartered says
In brief
- Aave positioned as key beneficiary of tokenized assets entering DeFi lending protocols.
- Standard Chartered expects April KelpDAO theft and asset price declines to fade by year-end.
- DeFi assets globally could reach $2.7 trillion by 2030 via real-world and crypto-native tokens.
- Aave's October deposit base stood at $75 billion, down from earlier peaks.
Tokenized Assets as a Growth Driver
Standard Chartered identified Aave as a potential beneficiary of real-world tokenized assets entering DeFi. Geoff Kendrick, the bank's global head of digital assets research, said active tokenized assets in DeFi could drive more deposits into the protocol. The mechanism is straightforward: tokenized assets (real-world assets like bonds or commodities wrapped as on-chain tokens) become collateral and liquidity sources within lending pools.
Aave's October 2025 deposit base was approximately $75 billion. That's down from earlier peaks, a decline Standard Chartered attributed to two concurrent pressures: a broader downturn in digital asset prices and the fallout from the April incident involving KelpDAO.
Recent Headwinds Poised to Fade
The KelpDAO incident involved $292 million and affected Aave, contributing to a loss of the protocol's lending market share. Standard Chartered, however, sees both negatives as temporary. The bank forecasts that digital asset price weakness and the April incident's lingering effects are set to clear by year-end.
Kendrick added that Standard Chartered expects Aave to recover part of that deposit scale as tokenized assets become more widely used as collateral and sources of liquidity within DeFi. The longer-term thesis is bullish on both the protocol and the broader tokenization trend.
The Broader DeFi Opportunity
Standard Chartered forecast that assets locked in DeFi could reach $2.7 trillion by 2030, driven by real-world assets and other crypto-native assets. That growth would require both infrastructure maturity and regulatory clarity—two areas where Aave, as the dominant lending protocol, stands to capture significant volume.
Beyond lending, Kendrick identified decentralized exchange Uniswap as a possible trading hub for tokenized markets, citing its scale, brand, and history of operating through multiple crypto market cycles. The implication: a maturing tokenized-asset ecosystem will need both deep liquidity pools (Aave) and efficient trading venues (Uniswap) to function at scale.
