Standard Chartered's global head of digital asset research, Geoff Kendrick, forecasts Chainlink's LINK token will reach $200 by end of 2030—a 25-fold increase from approximately $8 when the report was issued. The projection hinges on tokenized real-world assets reaching $4 trillion by end of 2028.
Kendrick said the scaling of on-chain RWAs will require significantly more secure external data. This demand will boost Chainlink's fee generation and directly influence LINK valuation. Chainlink's decentralized oracle network facilitates cross-chain communication and delivers external data to smart contracts across multiple blockchains.
Standard Chartered also projects tokenized and crypto-native assets in DeFi will reach $2.7 trillion by end of 2030—a 37-fold rise. This growth will require reliable data feeds, cross-chain interoperability, privacy-preserving compliance mechanisms, and robust integrations with traditional finance infrastructure.
Chainlink currently secures $34.4 billion in total value across its network, according to DefiLlama. Chronicle ranks second among oracle providers with $7.36 billion secured. This dominance reflects Chainlink's established role as the blockchain industry's leading decentralized oracle provider.
Tokenized RWA trading volume on decentralized exchanges hit $141 billion in July—a 19.5 percent monthly increase, primarily driven by public equities, according to CryptoRank. The surge demonstrates growing on-chain demand for these asset classes.
The LINK price appreciation thesis is directly tied to oracle utility. As more real-world and crypto-native assets are tokenized in DeFi, demand increases for Chainlink's secure data feeds, verifiable randomness functions, and cross-chain messaging. Each data request generates fees that accrue to network participants and token holders.
Kendrick identified risks to the price target: slower-than-expected institutional tokenization adoption, competition from specialist oracle providers that could erode Chainlink's market share and fee generation, and technical setbacks within Chainlink or the broader blockchain ecosystem.
