Aave Positioned for $3,500 Run by 2030 as DeFi Sector Rebounds, Says StanChart

Geoff Kendrick said Aave has moved past the disruption linked to April’s cyberattack and is now well positioned to benefit from the expanding adoption of tokenized assets and decentralized finance.

Standard Chartered’s head of digital assets research has initiated coverage on Aave (AAVE), forecasting the token could reach $3,500 by the end of 2030 as DeFi activity and real-world asset tokenization continue to grow.

The outlook implies nearly a 50x increase from AAVE’s current price near $70, with potential to outperform both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) over the same period, according to the report.

Kendrick said Aave has “moved past the April cybertheft incident” as liquidity returns to the protocol, adding that it remains strongly positioned to maintain leadership in on-chain lending.

The April exploit involving KelpDAO’s rsETH bridge triggered significant disruption in DeFi after attackers used roughly $290 million in stolen assets as collateral on Aave to borrow real funds.

The incident exposed Aave to potential losses of up to $230 million, led to user withdrawals, and highlighted how vulnerabilities in one protocol can quickly ripple through the broader DeFi ecosystem.

Kendrick described Aave as a fully automated, blockchain-based lending system that operates without intermediaries or discretionary control. At its peak in October 2025, the protocol held about $75 billion in deposits, placing it among the largest banking systems globally by scale.

Looking ahead, he expects the value of tokenized assets used in DeFi to expand roughly 37-fold by the end of the decade. Because Aave’s revenue is closely tied to lending activity and deposits, that growth could translate directly into significant upside for the AAVE token.

The report also highlighted a potential restart of Aave’s token buyback program as an additional catalyst. Its Horizon initiative—focused on lending against tokenized real-world assets in a permissioned framework—could attract institutional participation and accelerate adoption.

Despite recent weakness across crypto markets, Kendrick said the broader backdrop is improving, with Aave likely to benefit as capital flows back into DeFi.

Aave was last up 5.6% over 24 hours, trading near $76.