Morpho (MORPHO) jumps after Standard Chartered backs 33x upside to $60 by 2030
Morpho (MORPHO) surged about 5.5% to trade above $2 on Wednesday, after Standard Chartered initiated coverage with a $60 price target by end-2030. The token also gained around 11% over the past 24 hours, though it remains nearly 50% below its all-time high.
Standard Chartered said Morpho is well positioned to benefit from the growth of tokenized finance. It points to Morpho’s decentralized lending platform and on-chain infrastructure business, and expects Morpho’s assets to rise alongside a broader DeFi market it forecasts will expand 37-fold by the end of the decade.
The bank also highlighted Morpho’s financial strength and scaling ability, including the protocol’s push to deepen ties with traditional finance as the tokenized economy develops. Separately, Morpho Association raised $175 million in a major DeFi funding round, led by Paradigm, a16z crypto, and Ribbit, with additional backing from Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck, and Ledger Cathay.
On-chain fundamentals support the narrative: Morpho has more than $6.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) and ranks as the second-largest lending protocol, behind Aave (AAVE), according to DefiLlama.
The note also ties into broader sentiment: Standard Chartered previously started coverage on Aave (AAVE), setting a $3,500 year-end 2030 target, citing DeFi adoption and tokenized real-world assets.
Bullish
Standard Chartered’s fresh coverage creates a classic “institutional analyst” catalyst for MORPHO: a clear, high-confidence narrative (tokenized finance growth) plus a large 2030 target ($60). When such targets are published, traders often front-run the idea, leading to short-term momentum—consistent with MORPHO’s 5.5% daily move and ~11% 24h gain.
Fundamentals also strengthen the bid. The $175M Morpho Association raise signals continued capital inflows, while >$6.5B TVL and second-largest lending ranking support the view that user demand and collateral usage are real rather than purely hype-driven.
Near term, expect volatility: price can overshoot on headline-driven buying, but reversals may occur if broader DeFi risk sentiment cools.
Longer term, if the bank’s tokenized-finance and DeFi growth thesis plays out, MORPHO could benefit from sustained capital rotation within lending and RWA-linked markets. Similar analyst-initiation events in crypto have historically worked as momentum triggers, but sustained gains typically require continued inflows (TVL growth, incentives) beyond the initial announcement.