Arbitrum’s native token ARB could climb to as high as $10 by 2030, according to Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, who argues the layer-2 network’s revenue-sharing model gives it an edge over larger digital assets. Cointelegraph reported that the bank shared the note directly with the publication.
From ARB’s price of about $0.14 on Tuesday, the bank’s ceiling would amount to roughly a 70-fold gain, a return Standard Chartered expects to beat its own projections for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) across the same period.
Key facts
- Standard Chartered sees ARB reaching as high as $10 by 2030, against a price of about $0.14 on September 15, 2026 — a roughly 70-fold increase.
- Arbitrum takes 10% of the net protocol revenue generated by companies building on the network, a structure Kendrick says offers considerable upside.
- Arbitrum is expected to generate $5 million in revenue in September at its current run rate, more than five times its level before Robinhood Chain launched in July.
- Tokenized real-world assets have reached a cumulative value of nearly $39 billion, per RWA.xyz data cited in the note.
- Kendrick reiterated Standard Chartered’s forecast that tokenized assets will reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028.
Robinhood Chain reshapes Arbitrum’s economics
Kendrick points to Robinhood Chain, the network built by the online brokerage, as the clearest evidence that tokenization is already changing Arbitrum’s finances rather than merely promising to do so. According to the note, the chain has materially shifted Arbitrum’s revenue base, and the $5 million September run rate reflects a more than fivefold jump from pre-launch levels in July.
The mechanism behind the bank’s case is unusual among layer-2 networks. Rather than relying solely on crypto-native trading activity, Arbitrum collects a share of the net protocol revenue earned by firms that build their own layer-2 networks on top of its infrastructure. That arrangement turns traditional financial firms’ migration onchain into a direct revenue stream for the network, provided those firms keep expanding.
ARB was trading at around $0.14 on Tuesday, up 86% over the past month, according to Coingecko data cited in the report.
Tokenization growth underpins the forecast
The bank’s thesis depends heavily on the continued expansion of tokenized real-world assets, which the note pegs at nearly $39 billion in cumulative value. Kendrick repeated Standard Chartered’s view that banks and asset managers will push that figure to $4 trillion by the end of 2028, with Arbitrum positioned as a beneficiary of the shift.
Standard Chartered has leaned on the same tokenization theme in its bullish outlook for Chainlink and the wider decentralized finance sector, making the Arbitrum call part of a broader institutional view rather than a standalone wager.
Why it matters
The call matters less as a price target than as a statement about where value may accrue in layer-2 networks. If traditional financial firms increasingly launch their own chains and share revenue with the underlying infrastructure, Arbitrum’s economics diverge sharply from the fee-driven models crypto traders are used to. The forecast also sets an unusual benchmark: a bank telling clients that a layer-2 token could outrun both Bitcoin and Ether through 2030 implies the returns from crypto’s largest assets may look modest by comparison.
What to watch
The next concrete signals are whether Arbitrum’s monthly revenue holds at or above the $5 million September run rate, whether additional firms beyond Robinhood build on the network, and how quickly the tokenized asset market closes the gap toward Standard Chartered’s $4 trillion 2028 forecast. Kendrick’s cited downside scenarios — slower tokenization and competition from other blockchains — are the variables that would undercut the projection.
This is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency markets are volatile and uncertain, and price forecasts should not be treated as guaranteed outcomes.
Reported by cointelegraph.com.
Be the first to comment