Standard Chartered has initiated coverage on Arbitrum’s ARB governance token with an end-2030 price target of $10, a forecast that implies roughly seventyfold upside from the token’s price of about $0.137 at publication. The report, authored by Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, lays out annual checkpoints: $0.50 by end-2026, $1.50 by end-2027, $3.50 by end-2028, $6.50 by end-2029, and $10 by 2030. Even the first target would require ARB to gain around 265% from current levels.
As part of the same digital asset outlook, Standard Chartered projects Bitcoin at $100,000 by end-2026 and $500,000 by 2030, while Ether is projected at $4,000 and $40,000 for the same dates. This frames the bank’s expectation that ARB could outperform both assets through 2030.
The investment case rests on the expansion of tokenized assets and enterprise blockchain adoption. Standard Chartered estimates that onchain tokenized assets could grow from roughly $340 billion to $4 trillion by the end of 2028, with tokenized equities reaching $750 billion. The bank argues that Arbitrum has a “unique advantage” in helping traditional financial firms move operations onchain, particularly through its technology stack and dedicated-chain model.
A key early test is Robinhood Chain, a public Ethereum Layer 2 built with Arbitrum technology that launched in July 2026. Under the Arbitrum Expansion Program, chains outside Arbitrum One and Nova return 10% of net protocol revenue to the ecosystem—8 percentage points to ArbitrumDAO and 2 to the Arbitrum Developer Guild. Standard Chartered estimated Robinhood Chain generated average daily fee revenue of about $2.8 million during the first two weeks of September, which could translate into approximately $5 million in AEP fees for Arbitrum in September. The Arbitrum Foundation previously reported $360,000 in AEP license fees in July, representing 35% of DAO income that month. For the first half of 2026, the DAO received $6.19 million across transaction fees, Timeboost, AEP payments and treasury income, while the ecosystem processed 478 million transactions and held more than $125 million in non-ARB treasury assets.
Despite the bullish targets, the report highlights an unresolved issue: ARB holders govern the DAO and treasury, but the token does not automatically receive network revenue. The bank lists slower-than-expected tokenization, competition from other blockchains and ARB’s limited direct value accrual as key risks. The contrasting decline of Arbitrum Nova—whose TVL dropped from about $20.4 million to $359,000—shows that launching chains is not enough; they must sustain users and fees after incentives end.
Technically, ARB was trading near $0.137, almost exactly the 50% Fibonacci retracement of its move from a late-June low near $0.0697 to an early-September high near $0.205. Traders are watching whether this level becomes lasting support, with first resistance at $0.153 and deeper support around $0.121 to $0.102. Standard Chartered’s projections are forecasts, not guarantees, and the first meaningful checkpoint remains $0.50, not the distant $10 target.
