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Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee laid out a forceful, policy-driven Ethereum bull thesis in an interview on August 26, arguing {that a} US regulatory pivot, Wall Road’s transfer to on-chain infrastructure, and institutional demand routed by public “crypto treasuries” set the stage for a pointy fourth-quarter repricing. “Within the close to time period, you understand, $5,500 must be taking place within the subsequent couple of weeks,” Lee stated, including that by 12 months finish ETH “must be nearer to $10,000 to $12,000,” with the majority of crypto’s yearly positive aspects usually arriving in This fall.
Ethereum’s ‘1971 Second’
The mind behind BitMine’s ETH treasury technique frames 2025 as a structural break similar to the US greenback’s 1971 break from gold. In his view, Washington’s posture has shifted from seeing crypto as a risk to positioning it as an instrument of economic management. “Within the final 12 months, there’s been a sea change, partly due to the election, the place crypto is now not thought-about an enemy… however actually a part of how the US monetary system will get management,” Lee stated.
He pointed to stablecoins—“the breakout product, you understand, the chat-GPT second”—the proposed GENIUS Act and what he known as the SEC’s “Venture Crypto,” contending these indicators present regulators need “Wall Road to make use of the blockchain to truly make America extra modern and really unfold America’s monetary affect all over the world.”
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From there, Lee’s thesis facilities on Ethereum because the default institutional settlement layer. “Wall Road doesn’t need the quickest chain… They need a dependable chain that they will construct upon. Ethereum has had zero downtime in its whole historical past. So to me, it’s the pure choice.”
Calling Ethereum a “fats protocol,” he argued that worth accrues on the base layer as tokenization and fee rails migrate on-chain. Citing work “from Mosaics and from Fundstrat,” Lee stated that, if the community captures main fee and banking flows, “you get to a community worth of $60,000 worth per ETH” over a 10- to 15-year horizon.
BitMine’s Technique
A considerable a part of the dialog centered on the public-equity car he chairs, Bitmine, which he described as an actively managed Ethereum treasury. Lee contrasted holding spot ETH with proudly owning an organization that makes use of capital markets to develop ETH per share. “When Bitmine began… there was solely $4 value of Ethereum held per share,” he stated of a July 8 baseline.
“As of August 24, we now have $39.84 value of Ethereum held per share… So the explanation we had a 10x in your holdings is as a result of Bitmine is actively managing to develop your Ethereum held per share by utilizing capital markets and attracting the curiosity of institutional buyers.”
He argued that this method will be “anti-dilutive” when executed at an fairness premium to internet asset worth: “In case your ETH per share goes up, not one of the capital markets is dilution.” Lee added that Bitmine has “a billion-dollar inventory repurchase program in place as a result of if the inventory turns into too low cost relative to its ETH holdings, it might make extra sense to truly purchase again inventory.”
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On technique, Lee outlined an ambition to regulate roughly 5% of staked ETH, claiming a “energy legislation” impact as community significance scales. “In the event you’re a staking entity that owns 5 p.c, then you might have a constructive affect on future upgrades… [and] one of the crucial essential vectors for when Wall Road needs to construct on Ethereum,” he stated. With Ethereum’s proof-of-stake mechanics, he asserted that present holdings might generate substantial earnings: “With the $9 billion value of ETH held right now, that’s about virtually $300 million of internet earnings.”
Tom Lee’s Macro View
Institutional demand, Lee maintained, is lastly rotating towards ETH by way of regulated wrappers and equities, at the same time as many massive allocators nonetheless underweight it. “Ethereum continues to be typically not appreciated by establishments as a result of most have guess on Bitcoin… that’s why Ethereum might be falling into… essentially the most hated rally,” he stated, noting that year-to-date ETH positive aspects of 35 p.c have outpaced Bitcoin’s 17 p.c.”
Lee’s macro overlay extends past crypto. He reiterated a constructive fairness view contingent on Federal Reserve easing and a cyclical upturn. “If the Fed follows by and begins to chop… after which we get a drop in mortgage charges and the ISM turning up and due to this fact financials actually start to take part, I believe that’s why we get to six,800 or so on the S&P,” he stated. Whereas acknowledging that “September is the month everybody’s going to be anxious about,” he characterised any pullback as buyable: “Since 2022… that has all the time been a dip shopping for alternative.”
At press time, ETH traded at $4,614.
Featured picture created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
