Standard Chartered put Aave’s scale at the center of its latest research note. Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital asset research, said Aave’s deposit base was about $75 billion as of October 2025. On deposit volume alone, that would place the protocol among the 30 largest banks in the United States.
The note said Aave’s recent performance was pressured by two factors: weaker crypto prices and the KelpDAO-related event in April 2026. According to the bank, the $292 million incident reduced activity on Aave during that period and weighed on the protocol’s share of the lending market.
Market pressure appears to be easing
Even with those setbacks, Standard Chartered still described Aave as the largest protocol in decentralized lending. Kendrick said the drag from lower asset prices and the fallout from the KelpDAO incident now appears to be fading. The bank’s view is that operating conditions for Aave should improve again as those disruptions pass.
The same research note said Standard Chartered expects digital asset prices to move higher toward the end of the year. It did not attach a direct price target for Aave, but the message was clear: if external pressure eases, activity in on-chain lending and deposits could recover.
Tokenized assets are seen as a new source of liquidity
The bank tied Aave’s longer-term case to tokenization. Building on its earlier tokenization frameworks, Standard Chartered applied that thesis to decentralized lending and argued that tokenized real-world assets could generate new borrowing demand on blockchain-based platforms. In that setting, Aave was presented as a leading venue for loans backed by such assets.
Tokenization refers to representing traditional assets such as stocks, bonds, fund shares, or real estate as digital tokens on a blockchain. Standard Chartered said broader growth in that market could bring more deposits into DeFi protocols, with lending platforms that already have deep liquidity pools standing to capture a larger share of those flows.
Broader DeFi outlook extends to 2030
Standard Chartered has previously forecast that total value locked in DeFi could reach $2.7 trillion by 2030, driven by growth in tokenized real-world assets and crypto-native products. In this report, the bank placed Aave within that broader framework and said the protocol could regain, and potentially exceed, its current deposit scale over time.
The note also touched on decentralized exchanges connected to tokenized asset markets. Kendrick pointed to Uniswap as a standout platform, citing its scale, market recognition, and record across multiple market cycles.