A security breach at Binance could hasten crypto traders’ move from centralized exchanges to decentralized platforms, potentially strengthening the long-term outlook for Uniswap, according to Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research. The comments came as cryptocurrency markets remained under pressure following the attack.
Why the breach could benefit DEXs
Kendrick said the incident may increase the share of trading handled by decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, compared with centralized exchanges, known as CEXs. His comments were reported by Cointelegraph, which said Binance’s hack involved $6.3 billion and that the exchange had attributed the incident to a compromised engineer’s laptop in a live update.
A centralized exchange acts as an intermediary that holds or facilitates customers’ assets and trades. A DEX instead enables transactions through blockchain-based systems, generally without the same centralized trading structure. The distinction has made platform security and control of funds central issues for crypto users.
In an email shared with Cointelegraph, Kendrick said Uniswap had never experienced an exploit and encouraged investors to look again at the platform. He also cautioned that investors should allow time for the effects of the Binance attack to develop in the market before drawing conclusions.
Data from CoinGecko showed that the ratio of spot trading volume on the 10 largest DEXs to that on centralized exchanges reached 23.5% in the second quarter of 2026. That was 2.1 percentage points higher than in the first quarter, indicating that decentralized platforms had already been gaining ground before the Binance incident.
Standard Chartered’s Uniswap outlook
Kendrick maintained Standard Chartered’s price target of $100 for Uniswap’s UNI token by 2030. He said the Binance breach was an additional reason that the forecast could ultimately prove conservative, though the source did not provide a revised target or a new timetable for the expected shift.
The view is linked to Standard Chartered’s broader thesis that assets locked in decentralized finance, or DeFi, could reach $2.7 trillion by 2030. Under that thesis, Uniswap could become an important venue for trading tokenized assets. DeFi refers to financial services and applications built using blockchain networks rather than traditional financial intermediaries.
The longer-term argument comes against a weaker short-term backdrop. Kendrick expects further negative price action until more information about the hack becomes available and affected assets are unfrozen. He said a new market base would emerge only after those developments.
Current market picture
Moneyiar market data at 22:39 on October 25, 2026, showed BNB at $740.8618136891, up 0.81% over 24 hours and 3.32% over seven days. Uniswap’s UNI was priced at $6.9787690874, up 2.51% over 24 hours but down 2.12% over seven days.
The same Moneyiar data put Alchemy Pay at $0.0050519273, down 2.05% in 24 hours and 2.83% over seven days. RedStone stood at $0.1452603192, down 2.72% over 24 hours while gaining 6.36% over seven days. These figures are separate from the earlier market snapshot cited in the report, when CoinGecko had BNB down more than 8% over 24 hours, Bitcoin near $77,000, Aave down 11.3% to $118.54 and UNI down 10.4% to $6.48.
