Standard Chartered: Tokenized Assets Could Hit $4 Trillion by 2028, Sending Trillions Into DeFi!

Standard Chartered's global head of digital assets research, Geoffrey Kendrick, published a report Monday projecting that tokenized assets on public blockchains could reach $4 trillion by end-2028 — split evenly between stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets like bonds and funds. As that capital moves onchain, Kendrick argues DeFi protocols will become the default infrastructure for trading, lending, and collateral management, displacing traditional intermediaries.

The report centers on "composability" as DeFi's structural edge: on a shared ledger, a single tokenized asset can simultaneously earn yield, back a loan, and remain tradable — something traditional finance cannot replicate without multiple custodians, settlement layers, and bilateral integrations. BlackRock's BUIDL fund, issued via Securitize, is cited as a live example already operating this way inside DeFi…