Tom Lee says Ethereum can overtake Bitcoin—“flip” it—by enjoying for dollar-dominance in a world of tokenized belongings, at the same time as he stays emphatically bullish on Bitcoin’s financial position and long-term value.
In a podcast trade with Cathie Wooden, Lee framed the approaching competitors by way of a 1971-style lens, arguing that the tip of the gold commonplace catalyzed a wave of economic engineering that finally made dollar-based equities far bigger than gold; in his telling, the broad tokenization of cash and belongings 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 world financial system, you recognize, guidelines primarily based that we’ve been lacking for the reason that US went off the gold trade commonplace 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 commonplace. The instant 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 grew to become absolutely artificial as a result of it was now not backed by something. And so there was a danger that the world would go off the greenback commonplace. 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 economic transaction quotes.”
For Lee, the market-structure consequence was stark: “The market cap of equities as we speak is 40 trillion in comparison with two trillion for gold. So in different phrases, gold is 5 p.c of all obtainable belongings.” He then drew the crypto corollary. “In 2025, we expect every thing 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 publish ’71.”
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Crucially, Lee couched the flippening as a sectoral dynamic relatively than a zero-sum wager. “That’s simply our working principle 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 a minimum of be $1.5 to $2.1 million, however we are able to see larger 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 a whole lot of Wall Road will innovate” by way of real-world-asset issuance and collateral flows. “That might, after all, present upside to a impartial good contract platform the place a whole lot of Wall Road will innovate actual world belongings,” he concluded.
At press time, ETH traded at $3,750.
Featured picture created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
