Standard Chartered: after the Binance hack, traders may move to decentralized exchanges

The Binance hack could accelerate the shift of crypto trading to decentralized exchanges, which in the long term benefits Uniswap, according to Standard Chartered's Global Head of Digital Assets Research, Geoffrey Kendrick. In a letter to Cointelegraph, he noted that the incident should lead to further growth in the share of DEX trading relative to centralized platforms, although investors should wait until the effects of the attack manifest in the markets.

Kendrick's Position

“I would urge investors to take another look at Uniswap,” Kendrick stated. “This DEX has never had exploits, and the hack of the largest CEX, Binance, should lead to further growth in the DEX to CEX trading ratio.” According to CoinGecko's research, the spot trading ratio on the top 10 DEX to CEX was 23.5% in Q2 2026, an increase of 2.1 percentage points from Q1 2026.

Kendrick maintains a target price for Uniswap (UNI) at $100 by 2030 and says that the Binance hack is “another reason why this forecast might be too low.” The forecast relies on an earlier thesis by Standard Chartered: assets locked in DeFi could reach $2.7 trillion by 2030, and Uniswap will become a key platform for trading tokenized assets.

Market

Kendrick expects further negative price movements in the near term. According to Cointelegraph, on Friday, the crypto market continued to decline following the Binance hack: BNB fell by more than 8% in 24 hours, and Bitcoin traded around $77,000. DeFi tokens also decreased in value: AAVE by 11.3% to $118.54, UNI by 10.4% to $6.48, according to CoinGecko. “Only after the assets are unfrozen and more information about the hack emerges will we be able to find a new base,” Kendrick added.