Arbitrum Poised to Outperform Bitcoin and Ether through 2030, Says Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered's researchers believe that Arbitrum could outperform Bitcoin and Ether through 2030 due to its growing revenue from companies building on its layer-2 network. According to Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, Arbitrum's economics offer significant upside because the network receives a 10% share of net protocol revenue generated by companies using it.

The recent launch of Robinhood Chain has already had a material impact on Arbitrum's revenue. At its current run rate, Arbitrum is expected to generate $5 million in revenue in September, more than five times its level before the launch of Robinhood Chain in July. Kendrick expects this growth to support a steady rise in the price of Arbitrum's native token, ARB.

Standard Chartered projects that ARB could reach as high as $10 by 2030, representing a roughly 70-fold increase from its current value of around $0.14. However, Kendrick also notes that there are risks to this projection, including a slower-than-expected pace of asset tokenization and increased competition from alternate blockchains.

The growth of tokenized real-world assets is seen as a key driver of Arbitrum's potential success. Standard Chartered forecasts that tokenized assets will reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028, with banks and asset managers increasingly bringing more assets onchain. Arbitrum provides the infrastructure for companies to build their own layer-2 networks and receives a share of the revenue they generate.