Tom Lee says Ethereum can overtake Bitcoin—“flip” it—by enjoying for dollar-dominance in a world of tokenized property, at the same time as he stays emphatically bullish on Bitcoin’s financial position and long-term value.
In a podcast change with Cathie Wooden, Lee framed the approaching competitors by a 1971-style lens, arguing that the tip of the gold normal catalyzed a wave of monetary engineering that in the end made dollar-based equities far bigger than gold; in his telling, the broad tokenization of cash and property will rhyme with that historical past, positioning Ethereum’s smart-contract rails to seize the lion’s share of exercise.
Will Ethereum Flip Bitcoin?
Wooden set the premise with ARK’s top-down view of crypto’s addressable market by decade’s finish. “You understand, the ecosystem we count on to hit $25 trillion in 2030, the overwhelming majority of that in Bitcoin,” she mentioned, citing Bitcoin’s position as “a worldwide financial system, you understand, guidelines based mostly that we’ve been lacking for the reason that US went off the gold change normal in 1971.” She requested Lee immediately: “I’d love to listen to your ideas on why ETH or the ecosystem will surpass Bitcoin.”
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Lee’s reply was to rewind to that very same inflection level. “1971 was when Nixon formally withdrew the US from the gold normal. The speedy beneficiary was there was demand and a market to personal gold,” he mentioned.
However in his telling, the extra consequential growth was how finance rebuilt itself round an unpegged greenback. “In 1971, the greenback turned totally artificial as a result of it was not backed by something. And so there was a danger that the world would go off the greenback normal. So Wall Road stepped in create merchandise to propagate the way forward for Wall Road, together with…cash market funds…credit score…mortgage backed securities…futures, et cetera.” He continued, “Greenback dominance by the tip of that interval…went from 27 p.c of GDP phrases…to 57 p.c of central financial institution reserves and 80 p.c of monetary transaction quotes.”
For Lee, the market-structure consequence was stark: “The market cap of equities right this moment is 40 trillion in comparison with two trillion for gold. So in different phrases, gold is 5 p.c of all out there property.” He then drew the crypto corollary. “In 2025, we expect the whole lot is now changing into artificial as we tokenize…as we transfer not simply {dollars} onto the blockchain, simply stablecoins, however we’ll transfer shares and actual property. Greenback dominance goes to be the chance of Ethereum. So digital gold is Bitcoin. And so in that world, we imagine Ethereum may flip Bitcoin, much like how Wall Road and equities flipped gold submit ’71.”
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Crucially, Lee couched the flippening as a sectoral dynamic slightly than a zero-sum guess. “That’s simply our working concept as a result of I’m nonetheless a Bitcoin bull,” he mentioned. “I’m very bullish on Bitcoin and I imagine [Ark Invest’s] targets for Bitcoin are literally reachable. So we expect Bitcoin’s honest worth ought to at the least be $1.5 to $2.1 million, however we are able to see increased values.”
TOM LEE EXPLAINED TO CATHIE WOOD WHY ETHEREUM $ETH WILL EVENTUALLY FLIP BITCOIN $BTC! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/uFpoWWyHYY
— Tom Lee Updates (Not Tom) (@TomLeeUpdates) October 16, 2025
In his framework, Bitcoin anchors the “digital gold” financial premium, whereas Ethereum’s impartial smart-contract platform turns into the venue “the place plenty of Wall Road will innovate” by real-world-asset issuance and collateral flows. “That will, after all, present upside to a impartial sensible contract platform the place plenty of Wall Road will innovate actual world property,” he concluded.
At press time, ETH traded at $3,750.
Featured picture created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com