Standard Chartered Is Bullish on Morpho, Projects 33x Rally to $60 by 2030

Standard Chartered has made yet another bullish call for a crypto token. The bank set a price target of $60 by the end of 2030 for one of the biggest DeFi lending protocols, Morpho. The token is currently trading at around $2. This means the bank sees a potential upside of 33x from its current price.

The finance giant is also insinuating that it sees the token outpacing Bitcoin and Ethereum as decentralized finance continues to grow.

Standard Chartered sees massive growth ahead

According to analysts from Standard Chartered, the protocol is positioned to benefit from the next stage of DeFi adoption.

Geoff Kendrick, the bank's Head of Digital Assets Research, said the project is one of the strongest players in the lending sector. 

"Given its status as one of the largest DeFi lending protocols and its comfortable financial position (it just raised $175 million in VC funding), we think Morpho can scale to meet the expanding base of assets deployed in DeFi," he said.

The bank laid out a multi-year forecast that sees the coin reaching  $3.50 by the end of 2026, climbing to $11 in 2027, $22 in 2028, and $40 in 2029 before hitting $60 in 2030. Interestingly, Standard Chartered predicted the same 33x run for Uniswap last month, quoting similar parameters.

One of the reasons for the bullish call is that assets deployed across DeFi could grow 37-fold by the end of the decade. If that growth happens, lending platforms could be the biggest beneficiaries.

The protocol recently secured $175 million in venture capital funding, which gave it more resources to expand its products and bring in institutional users. At the time of writing, the token was trading at $2.13, gaining more than 7% following the report.

Why Morpho is different from other lending protocols

The project operates through two main products. The first is its lending marketplace, which allows users to lend and borrow assets. The second is its vault system, designed to help asset managers deploy capital on-chain.

Standard Chartered said these two would give the protocol an advantage over others as traditional financial firms look to integrate tokenized assets and blockchain-based lending.

Morpho ranks as the second-largest DeFi lending protocol behind Aave. They both control about 56% of deposits and 62% of active loans in DeFi lending.

Source: DeFiLlama

The lending markets hold around $5.55 billion in deposits, while its vault products manage about $4.3 billion. Together, that brings total deposits close to $9.99 billion. Its total value locked also sits at $6.7 billion.

Source: DeFiLama

The bank noted that partnerships with custody providers such as Fireblocks, Anchorage, and Taurus could also help attract more institutional capital over time. The protocol currently operates with a zero-fee lending model for depositors. This allows users to keep all lending income generated through their vault structure.