Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick initiated coverage of Aave with a price target of $3,500 by end-2030, implying a roughly 50x increase from current levels. Kendrick noted that Aave has largely recovered from market-share losses related to the April KelpDAO exploit, where attackers used $290 million in stolen tokens as collateral. The protocol is regaining assets and is well-positioned to benefit from the expected 37-fold growth in tokenized real-world assets used in DeFi by 2030. Kendrick compared Aave to an automated bank, noting it held $75 billion in deposits at its peak, ranking it among the top 30 U.S. banks. Additional catalysts include a potential restart of Aave's token buyback program and the Horizon initiative for lending against tokenized real-world assets, which could attract traditional institutions. Aave's token was trading around $76, up 5.6% in the last 24 hours.

Key facts

• Standard Chartered sets $3,500 target for Aave by 2030, a 50x increase.
• Aave recovered from April KelpDAO exploit that involved $290M stolen tokens.
• Tokenized assets in DeFi expected to grow 37-fold by 2030, boosting Aave.
• Aave held $75B in deposits at peak, ranking among top 30 US banks.
• Potential restart of token buyback and Horizon initiative are catalysts.