Standard Chartered has projected that $4 trillion in tokenized assets will be onchain by the end of 2028, split evenly between stablecoins and real-world assets (RWAs). The bank's global head of digital assets research, Geoffrey Kendrick, argues that mature decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols will capture the majority of the resulting throughput, driven by the sector's inherent composability.
Composability as the key differentiator. Kendrick explained that DeFi allows a single asset to simultaneously earn yield, serve as collateral, and trade for liquidity without traditional intermediaries — a capability he says has no direct equivalent in traditional finance. "This is not possible off-chain," he wrote, noting that achieving the same multi-use profile in traditional rails requires splitting capital across separate venues and intermediaries.
BlackRock's BUIDL as proof of concept. Kendrick cited BlackRock’s $2.85 billion tokenized Treasury fund, BUIDL, as an example. The fund earns roughly 4% Treasury yield, converts to sBUIDL for DeFi compatibility, serves as collateral on lending protocols, and acts as core reserve collateral for Ethena’s USDtb and Ondo’s OUSG — all without bilateral integrations.
DeFi protocols positioned to lead. Standard Chartered identified Aave, Compound, and Morpho as well-established platforms with strong risk metrics, likely to be favored by traditional finance operators moving assets onchain. Aave, the largest DeFi lending protocol, has ranked as high as 38th among U.S. banks by assets, processing $1.5–$2 billion in daily stablecoin lending. Coinbase’s lending product built on Morpho has reached $1.75 billion in loans across 22,000 borrowers, illustrating how TradFi institutions are plugging into DeFi as back-end infrastructure.
CLARITY Act seen as catalyst. Kendrick views passage of the CLARITY Act as the most significant near-term catalyst for accelerating the shift from traditional rails. The bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 on May 14 and now heads to a full floor vote. The bank consolidated its $2 trillion stablecoin supply target and $2 trillion RWA market forecast into the single $4 trillion projection, reaffirmed in April despite recent DeFi exploits.
