UNI Surges 24%, Whale Activity Drives Price Up Ahead of Standard Chartered's $100 Forecast

Uniswap's UNI token surged 24% in a single session, catching traders off guard. The sharp rise was accompanied by massive whale activity and a dramatic spike in trading volume, according to Santiment data.

The on-chain update pointed to transaction counts from wallets holding between 10,000 and 10 million UNI surging, historically a signal that large players are absorbing supply rather than distributing into strength. Exchange outflows for UNI also ticked higher, suggesting a portion of the volume wasn't for immediate sale.

The move aligned with a fresh $100 price target from Standard Chartered, adding a layer of institutional narrative that DeFi tokens rarely command. The bank's analysts argue that if Uniswap becomes the dominant venue for trading tokenized real-world assets, UNI's role in governance and potential fee capture could justify a triple-digit valuation.

The market has heard big-bank price targets for Bitcoin and Ethereum before, but a nine-figure call on a DeFi governance token is unusual. It suggests that Uniswap is being priced not as a simple DEX token but as infrastructure for a tokenized capital market future.