Standard Chartered has predicted that the $6.3 billion Binance hack could push more cryptocurrency trading toward decentralized exchanges, with Uniswap expected to benefit as investors reconsider their reliance on centralized platforms.
Summary
- Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick expects the $6.3 billion Binance hack to encourage more cryptocurrency trading on decentralized exchanges, particularly Uniswap, once the initial market disruption settles.
- Kendrick has maintained his $100 price target for Uniswap’s UNI token by 2030 and believes the Binance breach could strengthen the case for a higher valuation.
- CoinGecko data showed that the trading volume ratio between the top 10 decentralized and centralized spot exchanges reached 23.5% in the second quarter of 2026, up 2.1 percentage points from the previous quarter.
- Standard Chartered expects cryptocurrency prices to face further losses before stabilizing, with Kendrick pointing to the release of frozen assets and more details about the Binance attack as factors to watch.
- Uniswap’s UNI fell more than 10% following the hack, while Hyperliquid’s HYPE gained approximately 15% after ICE announced plans to develop a regulated US perpetual futures market with Trade.xyz.
According to comments shared with cryptomedia, Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, believes the security breach could encourage traders to move toward decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, once the initial market reaction has settled.
However, Kendrick warned that cryptocurrency prices could face further losses before the market stabilizes, as investigators continue examining the attack and efforts to recover the stolen funds remain underway.
His outlook comes after the October 29 breach at Binance, which affected approximately $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency and prompted the exchange to suspend deposits and withdrawals while conducting security checks.
Standard Chartered expects Binance hack to benefit Uniswap
Kendrick believes decentralized exchanges could attract more trading activity following the attack, particularly as investors assess the risks of keeping their assets on centralized platforms.
He specifically pointed to Uniswap as a potential beneficiary and encouraged investors to reconsider the decentralized exchange once the immediate market disruption has passed.
“I would encourage investors to re-engage with Uniswap,” Kendrick said, adding that the platform’s security record and the attack on Binance could help decentralized exchanges capture a larger share of cryptocurrency trading.
The analyst maintained his $100 price target for Uniswap’s UNI token by 2030, although he suggested the latest incident could strengthen the case for an even higher valuation.
Kendrick described the Binance hack as “another reason why that forecast may end up being too low.”
His projection follows Standard Chartered’s earlier forecast that the total value of assets locked in decentralized finance could reach $2.7 trillion by 2030.
Under that outlook, Uniswap could become an important trading venue for tokenized assets as more financial products move onto blockchain networks.
The bank’s prediction concerns the longer term, however, and Kendrick has not suggested that decentralized exchanges will immediately benefit from the market disruption caused by the hack.
DEX trading volumes have gained ground against centralized exchanges
Decentralized exchanges had already been gaining market share before the Binance attack, according to cryptocurrency market data published earlier this year.
CoinGecko’s second-quarter industry report showed that the trading volume ratio between the top 10 spot decentralized and centralized exchanges reached 23.5% in the second quarter of 2026, up 2.1 percentage points from the previous quarter.
The figures came despite a decline in trading activity across both types of platforms during the period.
Spot trading volume on the 10 largest decentralized exchanges fell 26.5% to $408.9 billion, while centralized exchanges recorded $1.95 trillion in volume, a decline of 27.9% from the first quarter.
Uniswap remained the largest decentralized spot exchange during the quarter, accounting for 41.2% of trading volume among the top 10 platforms tracked by CoinGecko.
Its trading volume stood at $168.5 billion, down 21.4% from the previous quarter, while PancakeSwap followed with $80.7 billion.
The figures show that decentralized exchanges gained ground against centralized competitors even as trading activity declined across the cryptocurrency market.
Binance nevertheless remained the largest centralized spot exchange, with a 38.7% share of trading volume among the top 10 platforms during the second quarter.
Binance hack leaves crypto market under pressure
The latest comments from Standard Chartered came as cryptocurrency prices fell following the Binance security breach, with several major tokens recording losses.
Bitcoin traded near $77,000 on Friday, while Binance’s BNB token fell more than 8% over 24 hours, according to market data cited by Cointelegraph.
Decentralized finance tokens were caught in the selling as well. Uniswap’s UNI dropped 10.4% to $6.48, while Aave’s AAVE declined 11.3% to $118.54.
In separate comments reported by CoinDesk, Kendrick said the market could face further selling before cryptocurrency prices establish a more stable trading range.
“I suspect the negative price action still has some way to go,” he said.
He expects the market to find a new base only after more information about the Binance attack becomes available and frozen assets are released.
The incident involved unauthorized transactions from Binance-controlled wallets, with investigators tracing the attack to compromised transaction authorization controls.
As previously reported by crypto.news, blockchain security firm Blockaid identified 50 Ethereum EIP-7702 authorizations submitted in a single transaction, one of which successfully targeted Binance’s heavily used hot wallet.
Binance’s preliminary investigation pointed to a potentially compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, although the exchange said it had found no evidence that a wallet private key had been leaked.
The company reported that approximately $3 billion in affected assets had been frozen and pledged to cover customer losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users and company reserves.
Hyperliquid gains as other DEX tokens decline
While most decentralized exchange tokens fell following the Binance hack, Hyperliquid’s HYPE moved in the opposite direction.
The token gained approximately 15%, according to CoinDesk, following news that Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, had partnered with Trade.xyz to develop a regulated perpetual futures market in the United States.
Under the proposed Hyperliquid partnership, the companies plan to offer round-the-clock trading in contracts tied to stocks, indexes, commodities, foreign exchange and cryptocurrencies.
The project remains subject to approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the companies have not announced a launch date.
Trade.xyz said its existing markets on Hyperliquid had processed more than $650 billion in cumulative trading volume over the past year. ICE is making a strategic investment in the company, although the financial terms have not been disclosed.
