Standard Chartered expects tokenized assets to grow rapidly as adoption of stablecoins and real-world assets rises. The bank believes institutional investors will favor established DeFi platforms, while Ondo’s OUSG and BlackRock’s BUIDL continue expanding blockchain-based financial infrastructure and on-chain market integration globally.
Standard Chartered Sees Massive On-chain Asset Expansion
Standard Chartered expects tokenized assets on blockchain networks to reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028. The projection combines the bank’s earlier forecasts for stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, with each category expected to grow into a $2 trillion market.
The bank believes decentralized finance infrastructure will absorb most of the activity linked to this expansion. Its digital assets research team said institutional capital is likely to move toward large and established on-chain protocols that can demonstrate strong risk management and operational reliability.
The report highlighted the growing importance of composability inside decentralized finance. This structure allows one digital asset position to perform multiple roles at the same time.
Assets can generate yield, remain liquid, and also serve as collateral across different applications without requiring separate financial intermediaries.
According to the bank, traditional financial systems cannot easily replicate this structure because capital often remains fragmented across multiple institutions and platforms.
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DeFi Infrastructure Gains Institutional Attention
BlackRock was mentioned as an example of tokenized finance adoption through its BUIDL treasury fund. The product reportedly manages around $2.85 billion in assets while operating across several DeFi functions simultaneously.
The fund will earn the treasury yield rate, aid lending transactions, and function as the reserve against which digital dollars like Ondo’s OUSG are tokenized. Standard Chartered highlighted this structure as an example of how tokenization may serve multiple purposes in one unified system.
The ratio of bank-issued off-chain assets continues to be ahead of on-chain ones by 1,000x; however, the tokenization of institutional-grade assets is considered the next phase of development of blockchain-based marketplaces.
The company called Ondo Finance, along with its OUSG, is mentioned as a promising projects in this regard.
Lending Protocols Continue Expanding
However, the report pointed out the increased interaction between institutional bodies and decentralized lending protocols.
On occasion, Aave rose to the 38th spot regarding asset holdings among US banks. Furthermore, Aave’s daily volumes for lending against stablecoins ranged between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
Concurrently, the Coinbase-Morpho bitcoin lending partnership demonstrated the integration of DeFi services into legacy organizations instead of building dedicated platforms within legacy institutions.
As per Standard Chartered, progress in regulations, for example, the Clarity Act, can be a major factor that will push financial transactions from centralized systems to decentralized systems in the coming years.
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