Standard Chartered said layer-2 network Arbitrum could rank among the digital asset industry’s top performers through 2030 if traditional financial firms continue moving assets onchain, giving the network a revenue stream that extends beyond crypto-native activity.
In a note shared with Cointelegraph, Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, said Arbitrum’s economics carry substantial upside because the network receives 10% of the net protocol revenue generated by companies building on it. He identified Robinhood Chain, developed by the online brokerage Robinhood, as the first major example.
According to Kendrick, Robinhood Chain has already materially changed Arbitrum’s economics. At its current run rate, Arbitrum is expected to generate $5 million in revenue in September, more than five times the level recorded before Robinhood Chain launched in July.
Kendrick said those economics could support a steady climb in Arbitrum’s native token, ARB, over the coming years, with the price reaching as high as $10 by 2030. From current levels, that would amount to roughly a 70-fold increase, well above Standard Chartered’s projected returns for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) over the same period.
CoinGecko data showed ARB was valued at around $0.14 on Tuesday, after gaining 86% over the past month.
Kendrick said the biggest risks to his ARB price projection include "a slower-than-expected pace of asset tokenization and more competition from alternate blockchains."
Arbitrum’s outlook is tied to tokenized assets
Standard Chartered’s bullish case is closely linked to growth in tokenized real-world assets. Data from RWA.xyz shows the cumulative value of tokenized real-world assets has reached nearly $39 billion.
In the note, Kendrick reiterated the bank’s forecast that tokenized assets will reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028 as banks and asset managers bring more assets onchain. Standard Chartered sees Arbitrum as a potential beneficiary because it provides infrastructure that lets companies build their own layer-2 networks while allowing Arbitrum to collect a share of the revenue those networks generate.
The bank has also pointed to tokenization growth as part of its bullish view on Chainlink and the broader decentralized finance, or DeFi, sector.