Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine Immersion Applied sciences, mentioned BlackRock’s new Bitcoin report reinforces the case for Ethereum (ETH). He pointed to synthetic intelligence (AI) and robotics as the explanation.
BlackRock’s paper, known as “Re-Underwriting Bitcoin,” examined Bitcoin’s greater than 50% decline from its October 2025 excessive. It mentioned capital had rotated into AI-themed fairness funds as a substitute.
What Lee Argued
Lee, who additionally co-founded Fundstrat, wrote on X that AI capabilities are advancing alongside a steep S-curve. He mentioned current analysis factors to AI programs growing a type of collective coordination.
Blockchains and sensible contracts, he argued, preserve people concerned in overseeing that habits. He prolonged the identical logic to robotics, citing a video of a robotic outperforming human athletes.
In the identical submit, Lee known as Ethereum a very powerful base layer, or “L1.” The time period describes the foundational community that different blockchain purposes depend on.
“we see $ETH as an vital downstream story for AI”
The place the Case Will get Skinny
However BlackRock’s report by no means mentions Ethereum, robotics, or blockchain verification of AI programs. As an alternative, its authors body AI-linked fairness funds as competitors for capital, not a use case for sensible contracts.
Nonetheless, Lee’s framing goes additional than the report itself. BlackRock hyperlinks Bitcoin’s pullback to leverage and shifting fund flows, not a change in Bitcoin’s function as a financial hedge.
This isn’t the primary time Lee has tied Ethereum to the AI commerce. Bitmine holds about 4.8% of Ethereum’s circulating provide, making Lee one of many asset’s largest institutional stakeholders.
That place offers Lee a transparent monetary incentive to hyperlink Ethereum to main crypto narratives, together with Bitcoin’s personal funding case.
Ethereum trades close to $1,908 as of Aug. 19, 2026, in response to CoinGecko knowledge. Whether or not Lee’s AI-and-robotics framing positive aspects wider traction might rely upon concrete examples of blockchains verifying autonomous programs in apply.
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