Aave climbed more than 15% in 24 hours to trade around $82.77, bucking a broad crypto selloff that dragged Bitcoin (BTC) below $60,000 for the third time in June.

While most major tokens fell in lockstep with a broader crypto leverage selloff, AAVE pushed higher on improving protocol fundamentals and fresh institutional attention.

USDT Deposits Signal Returning Capital

On-chain data is driving some of the renewed interest. USDT deposits are flowing back into the protocol, with Aave’s Ethereum V3 Core market approaching $3 billion in stablecoin deposits.

The returning liquidity strengthens Aave’s lending capacity and improves yield opportunities for depositors, two factors that tend to attract additional capital to the Aave DeFi protocol.

Standard Chartered’s 50x Call Now in Focus

The rally comes a day after Standard Chartered initiated coverage on AAVE with a $3,500 price target by the end of 2030. The bank’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, described Aave as an on-chain bank. He flagged a 37-times increase in assets active in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) as the core driver.

The Standard Chartered Aave price forecast ties most of its upside to tokenized real-world assets flowing into the protocol via Aave Horizon.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s brief drop below $60,000 on June 24 reflected broader risk-off pressure from AI stock and sustained ETF outflows.

AAVE’s rally through that backdrop suggests capital is selectively rotating into DeFi. This is a trend the longer-term AAVE outlook will need to sustain to validate Standard Chartered’s ambitious target.

Source: BeInCrypto