Standard Chartered digital assets research head Geoffrey Kendrick said the market is materially undervaluing the partnership potential between Uniswap and traditional finance platforms. The reaction was immediate: UNI climbed 13.3% over 24 hours to $3.15.
The comment came just after Uniswap announced on July 2 that Robinhood Chain, a layer-2 network built by Robinhood’s crypto team, had launched with full support for Uniswap V2, V3, V4, and UniswapX. On day one, the integration also covered the Uniswap web app, wallet client, and API. That puts Uniswap in a deeper position than a standard partner relationship. It is part of the chain’s trading infrastructure.
Robinhood Chain launch puts Uniswap at the center of execution
Kendrick said on July 3 that the Uniswap-Robinhood arrangement is only an early example of what could become a broader pattern over the next few quarters. In his view, more cross-sector deals are likely, with Uniswap positioned as a primary beneficiary. The market’s first response showed up in the token price.
According to The Block, Kendrick’s thesis is that traditional brokerages are moving faster to add onchain trading capabilities into their product stacks, and Uniswap is among the first DeFi protocols to benefit. That changes the frame for UNI. Instead of relying only on native onchain volume, the protocol could gain from distribution, infrastructure demand, and institutional access points.
Kendrick had already laid out a long-term UNI target
This is not Standard Chartered’s first bullish call on Uniswap. In June, Kendrick set a 2030 price target of $100 for UNI. At the time, he argued that Uniswap V4’s hooks and active order book features could push the protocol beyond the narrow definition of a decentralized exchange and toward a broader role as DeFi infrastructure.
Current figures in the source place Uniswap’s total value locked at about $2.8 billion, ranking it among the top three DeFi protocols. If the wave of partnerships described by Kendrick continues to materialize, the next stage of growth for Uniswap may come from traditional financial firms integrating liquidity and trading rails onchain, rather than from volume growth inside crypto alone.
Focus shifts to the interface between broker platforms and DeFi
The source also noted that, after the Robinhood Chain rollout, users in the UK and Europe are expected to access their first onchain trades through Uniswap. That could widen UNI’s liquidity base beyond crypto-native users. Standard Chartered’s own activity adds another data point: the bank has already launched institutional USDC minting services this year and has kept publishing crypto price forecasts, showing sustained attention to digital assets and DeFi.
For now, the clearest signal is simple. The connection between broker platforms, layer-2 networks, and DeFi protocols is moving from concept to deployment, and Uniswap is near the front of that shift.