Standard Chartered Sees Arbitrum ARB as Top Crypto Performer vs. BTC, ETH by 2030

Standard Chartered’s digital assets research unit projects that Arbitrum’s layer-2 network could emerge as a leading performer in the digital asset space by 2030, driven by the increasing movement of assets onto blockchain infrastructure by traditional financial institutions. Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, highlights Arbitrum’s revenue model—receiving a 10% cut of net protocol revenue generated by companies building on its platform—as a key differentiator compared to purely crypto-native ecosystems. This model is already being tested by Robinhood Chain, the online brokerage’s onchain asset platform, which has already altered Arbitrum’s financial dynamics. At its current growth rate, Arbitrum is expected to generate $5 million in revenue in September, up more than fivefold from pre-Robinhood Chain levels observed in July. Kendrick anticipates sustained revenue growth, which could support Arbitrum’s native token, ARB, reaching a price of $10 by 2030—a roughly 70-fold increase from its current valuation of around $0.14, far outpacing Standard Chartered’s projected returns for Bitcoin and Ether over the same period. ARB has gained 86% over the past month, according to CoinGecko data. The bank’s optimism hinges on the expansion of tokenized real-world assets, which have reached a cumulative value of nearly $39 billion, according to RWA.xyz. Standard Chartered forecasts these assets will total $4 trillion by the end of 2028, as banks and asset managers increasingly deploy assets onchain. Arbitrum’s infrastructure—allowing companies to build their own layer-2 networks—positions it as a potential beneficiary of this trend. Beyond Arbitrum, Standard Chartered also sees opportunities in Chainlink and decentralized finance (DeFi) as tokenization accelerates. Key risks to Arbitrum’s outlook include slower-than-expected adoption of asset tokenization and increased competition from alternative blockchains.