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Standard Chartered: Bitcoin Could Reach $126,000 by Year-End; Previous $100,000 Target Too Conservative
Odaily News: Geoff Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered Bank, stated that the forecast of Bitcoin reaching $100,000 by the end of the year may be too conservative, and there is a possibility of challenging the previous all-time high of $126,000 before the year ends.On Friday, Kendrick noted that the recent Bitcoin rally has been primarily driven by short liquidations, while inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs have also begun to recover. Given the currently low open interest levels in the market, more investors could re-enter as prices rise, providing further momentum for the rally."This is the first time this year that I've seen a risk that my year-end target of $100,000 may be too low," Kendrick said.Kendrick believes that Bitcoin's rebound momentum could accelerate further after October 6. Meanwhile, several market observers also believe the bear market may be nearing its end. Cory Klippsten, CEO of Swan Bitcoin, previously stated that Bitcoin could bottom out in October; Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, suggested that if the August monthly close stays above $63,000, it could confirm the formation of a bear market bottom. (Cointelegraph)
Standard Chartered: Maintains Bitcoin Price Forecast of $100,000 by End of 2026
Odaily Odaily Planet Daily reported that Geoffrey Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered, stated that the market has misinterpreted Michael Saylor's adjustments to Strategy Inc.'s bitcoin strategy, and the recent selling pressure stems from confusion over this strategy rather than a change in bitcoin's long-term outlook. Strategy Inc. is shifting bitcoin from being a reserve accumulation asset to serving as collateral to support its STRC preferred stock. Kendrick maintains the bitcoin price forecast of $100,000 by the end of 2026. As of press time, BTC was trading at $64,322.89, and Strategy's stock MSTR closed at $94.64 on Friday. The outstanding notional value of STRC is approximately $10 billion, which Kendrick believes makes the preferred stock heavily overcollateralized due to its bitcoin backing. (Bitcoin.com News).
ARK Invest Exec Suggests Hyperliquid Acquire Gemini to Position as Compliant HIP-3/4 Deployer in the U.S.
Odaily Planet Daily reported that Lorenzo Valente, Head of Digital Asset Research at investment firm ARK Invest, stated that Hyperliquid is in discussions with the CFTC and SEC to facilitate the offering of perpetual futures on its public chain by U.S.-regulated companies. He suggested that Hyperliquid acquire Gemini to position it as a U.S.-regulated HIP-3/4 deployer. He noted that Gemini's current market value is approximately $450 million, representing a decline of over 85% from its $3.3 billion valuation at the time of its 2025 IPO. Hyperliquid could obtain Gemini's entire U.S. regulatory infrastructure—including the NYDFS Trust Charter, DCM, DCO, FCM, MTLs, and Broker-dealer—for approximately $450 million.He further proposed that Hyperliquid could use approximately 7.9 million HYPE tokens from its community reserve, valued at around $550 million at $70 per token, to complete the acquisition at a premium of roughly 20% over Gemini's current market value. Following the transaction, Gemini would handle KYC, custody, fiat on/off ramps, brokerage, clearing, and compliance for the U.S. market, while Hyperliquid L1 would provide the underlying market infrastructure, liquidity, and on-chain settlement. He cited Polymarket's acquisition of QCEX as a similar precedent for re-entering the U.S. market, and stated that the core of this potential deal is not acquiring an exchange, but rather securing the regulatory bridge for HIP-3/4 to enter the U.S. market.
Standard Chartered: Maintains Bitcoin Price Forecast of $100,000 by End of 2026
Odaily Odaily Planet Daily reported that Geoffrey Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered, stated that the market has misinterpreted Michael Saylor's adjustments to Strategy Inc.'s bitcoin strategy, and the recent selling pressure stems from confusion over this strategy rather than a change in bitcoin's long-term outlook. Strategy Inc. is shifting bitcoin from being a reserve accumulation asset to serving as collateral to support its STRC preferred stock. Kendrick maintains the bitcoin price forecast of $100,000 by the end of 2026. As of press time, BTC was trading at $64,322.89, and Strategy's stock MSTR closed at $94.64 on Friday. The outstanding notional value of STRC is approximately $10 billion, which Kendrick believes makes the preferred stock heavily overcollateralized due to its bitcoin backing. (Bitcoin.com News).
ARK Invest Executive Questions Stablecoin Consortium Project OpenUSD: Potential Repeat of "Diem-Style Collaborative Failure"
: Lorenzo Valente, ARK Invest's Director of Digital Asset Research, has questioned the stablecoin consortium project OpenUSD, expressing high skepticism about whether such consortium-style stablecoin initiatives can achieve scale. He believes that similar alliances have emerged multiple times before, including Diem and Global Dollar, but ultimately failed to form dominant network effects. Currently, the stablecoin market remains dominated by Tether and Circle, whose core advantages lie in strong network effects and instant liquidity. OpenUSD, however, may face a "cold start" problem, as its joint governance structure will severely slow down decision-making efficiency, making it prone to coordination failures under decentralized governance—resembling the governance dilemmas of DAO experiments: high collaboration costs, slow execution, and difficulty deploying capital efficiently.Furthermore, OpenUSD's economic model appears unsustainable for long-term operations. If it relies on a low-fee split mechanism, it will be unable to cover the costs of infrastructure, incentives, and market expansion.Lorenzo Valente concluded that OpenUSD resembles more of a "collection of letters of intent" than a unified product system with strong execution capabilities. He argued that in the long run, the more likely winners are single operators capable of rapid iteration and independent decision-making, rather than joint governance structures requiring multi-party consensus.
Standard Chartered Bank: Aave is expected to rise to $3,500 by 2030, an increase of approximately 50x from its current price.
According to CoinDesk, Geoff Kendrick, Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered Bank, released a report initiating coverage of the decentralized lending protocol Aave, with a target price of $3,500 by end-2030—approximately 50 times its current price of around $70—and expects Aave to outperform both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Kendrick stated that Aave has recovered from the April 2026 KelpDAO rsETH bridge vulnerability incident, during which attackers used approximately $290 million worth of stolen tokens as collateral to borrow real assets on Aave, exposing the protocol to up to $230 million in potential losses. Assets have now begun flowing back onto the platform, and Aave’s dominant position in on-chain lending remains solid. Looking ahead, Standard Chartered forecasts that the value of tokenized assets actively used in DeFi applications will grow 37-fold by 2030. Aave—whose revenue model is directly tied to lending activity—is poised to benefit directly. Additionally, Aave’s Horizon initiative (enabling tokenized real-world asset lending in permissioned environments) and the potential relaunch of its token buyback program are viewed as key catalysts.
Related news
Standard Chartered: Bitcoin Could Reach $126,000 by Year-End; Previous $100,000 Target Too Conservative
Odaily News: Geoff Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered Bank, stated that the forecast of Bitcoin reaching $100,000 by the end of the year may be too conservative, and there is a possibility of challenging the previous all-time high of $126,000 before the year ends.On Friday, Kendrick noted that the recent Bitcoin rally has been primarily driven by short liquidations, while inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs have also begun to recover. Given the currently low open interest levels in the market, more investors could re-enter as prices rise, providing further momentum for the rally."This is the first time this year that I've seen a risk that my year-end target of $100,000 may be too low," Kendrick said.Kendrick believes that Bitcoin's rebound momentum could accelerate further after October 6. Meanwhile, several market observers also believe the bear market may be nearing its end. Cory Klippsten, CEO of Swan Bitcoin, previously stated that Bitcoin could bottom out in October; Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, suggested that if the August monthly close stays above $63,000, it could confirm the formation of a bear market bottom. (Cointelegraph)
ARK Invest Exec Suggests Hyperliquid Acquire Gemini to Position as Compliant HIP-3/4 Deployer in the U.S.
Odaily Planet Daily reported that Lorenzo Valente, Head of Digital Asset Research at investment firm ARK Invest, stated that Hyperliquid is in discussions with the CFTC and SEC to facilitate the offering of perpetual futures on its public chain by U.S.-regulated companies. He suggested that Hyperliquid acquire Gemini to position it as a U.S.-regulated HIP-3/4 deployer. He noted that Gemini's current market value is approximately $450 million, representing a decline of over 85% from its $3.3 billion valuation at the time of its 2025 IPO. Hyperliquid could obtain Gemini's entire U.S. regulatory infrastructure—including the NYDFS Trust Charter, DCM, DCO, FCM, MTLs, and Broker-dealer—for approximately $450 million.He further proposed that Hyperliquid could use approximately 7.9 million HYPE tokens from its community reserve, valued at around $550 million at $70 per token, to complete the acquisition at a premium of roughly 20% over Gemini's current market value. Following the transaction, Gemini would handle KYC, custody, fiat on/off ramps, brokerage, clearing, and compliance for the U.S. market, while Hyperliquid L1 would provide the underlying market infrastructure, liquidity, and on-chain settlement. He cited Polymarket's acquisition of QCEX as a similar precedent for re-entering the U.S. market, and stated that the core of this potential deal is not acquiring an exchange, but rather securing the regulatory bridge for HIP-3/4 to enter the U.S. market.
RWA Trading May Reshape DeFi Platform Economics; Trade.xyz Could Demand Higher Fee Share if It Accounts for 90% of Hyperliquid's Trading Volume
Odaily News According to Lorenzo Valente, Head of Digital Asset Research at investment firm ARK Invest, trading venues dedicated to Real World Assets (RWA) can scale with minimal reliance on Bitcoin and Ethereum liquidity, driving RWA liquidity to diverge by asset class.On July 23, Valente stated that DeFi is entering a new phase. Data shows that RWA accounts for 54% of Hyperliquid's weekly trading volume, with individual stocks representing 61% of that RWA volume; decentralized exchanges recorded $79 billion in perpetual futures trading volume during the same period, with Hyperliquid accounting for $50 billion of that total.Valente believes that if Trade.xyz accounts for 90% of Hyperliquid's trading volume, it could demand a higher share of user fees. Most popular applications will continue to rely on shared infrastructure, and only when the cost of operating independently exceeds the value of the liquidity, users, and security they rent will they consider building their own chain. (Bitcoin.com News)
Standard Chartered: Maintains Bitcoin Price Forecast of $100,000 by End of 2026
Odaily Odaily Planet Daily reported that Geoffrey Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered, stated that the market has misinterpreted Michael Saylor's adjustments to Strategy Inc.'s bitcoin strategy, and the recent selling pressure stems from confusion over this strategy rather than a change in bitcoin's long-term outlook. Strategy Inc. is shifting bitcoin from being a reserve accumulation asset to serving as collateral to support its STRC preferred stock. Kendrick maintains the bitcoin price forecast of $100,000 by the end of 2026. As of press time, BTC was trading at $64,322.89, and Strategy's stock MSTR closed at $94.64 on Friday. The outstanding notional value of STRC is approximately $10 billion, which Kendrick believes makes the preferred stock heavily overcollateralized due to its bitcoin backing. (Bitcoin.com News).
ARK Invest Executive Questions Stablecoin Consortium Project OpenUSD: Potential Repeat of "Diem-Style Collaborative Failure"
: Lorenzo Valente, ARK Invest's Director of Digital Asset Research, has questioned the stablecoin consortium project OpenUSD, expressing high skepticism about whether such consortium-style stablecoin initiatives can achieve scale. He believes that similar alliances have emerged multiple times before, including Diem and Global Dollar, but ultimately failed to form dominant network effects. Currently, the stablecoin market remains dominated by Tether and Circle, whose core advantages lie in strong network effects and instant liquidity. OpenUSD, however, may face a "cold start" problem, as its joint governance structure will severely slow down decision-making efficiency, making it prone to coordination failures under decentralized governance—resembling the governance dilemmas of DAO experiments: high collaboration costs, slow execution, and difficulty deploying capital efficiently.Furthermore, OpenUSD's economic model appears unsustainable for long-term operations. If it relies on a low-fee split mechanism, it will be unable to cover the costs of infrastructure, incentives, and market expansion.Lorenzo Valente concluded that OpenUSD resembles more of a "collection of letters of intent" than a unified product system with strong execution capabilities. He argued that in the long run, the more likely winners are single operators capable of rapid iteration and independent decision-making, rather than joint governance structures requiring multi-party consensus.
Standard Chartered Bank: Aave is expected to rise to $3,500 by 2030, an increase of approximately 50x from its current price.
According to CoinDesk, Geoff Kendrick, Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered Bank, released a report initiating coverage of the decentralized lending protocol Aave, with a target price of $3,500 by end-2030—approximately 50 times its current price of around $70—and expects Aave to outperform both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Kendrick stated that Aave has recovered from the April 2026 KelpDAO rsETH bridge vulnerability incident, during which attackers used approximately $290 million worth of stolen tokens as collateral to borrow real assets on Aave, exposing the protocol to up to $230 million in potential losses. Assets have now begun flowing back onto the platform, and Aave’s dominant position in on-chain lending remains solid. Looking ahead, Standard Chartered forecasts that the value of tokenized assets actively used in DeFi applications will grow 37-fold by 2030. Aave—whose revenue model is directly tied to lending activity—is poised to benefit directly. Additionally, Aave’s Horizon initiative (enabling tokenized real-world asset lending in permissioned environments) and the potential relaunch of its token buyback program are viewed as key catalysts.