Standard Chartered Pumps Up ARB to $10 in 2030, Outpacing Bitcoin and Ether

Standard Chartered has initiated coverage of Arbitrum's ARB token and set ambitious price targets. The bank forecasts that ARB will outperform both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), with a target of $0.50 by the end of this year, rising to $10 by 2030.

The forecast is based on Arbitrum's revenue stream from its Expansion Program, which provides a 10% cut of net protocol revenue for chains built using Arbitrum technology. Robinhood Chain has already pushed Arbitrum's revenue past five times its pre-launch level.

Standard Chartered expects the value of assets flowing on-chain to increase to $4 trillion by 2028 from ~$340 billion today, with tokenized equities alone expected to be $750 billion. The bank sees Arbitrum as 'enterprise plumbing' for banks and asset managers seeking to transfer instruments onto blockchains.

Geoff Kendrick, who runs digital assets research at Standard Chartered, highlighted the potential of Arbitrum's model, which is 'heavily focused on revenue'. However, he also cautioned that tokenization could move slower than predicted, and competing blockchains could steal a share. ARB holders capture little direct value from fees going through the network.