Tom Lee says Ethereum can overtake Bitcoin—“flip” it—by taking part in for dollar-dominance in a world of tokenized property, whilst he stays emphatically bullish on Bitcoin’s financial position and long-term worth.
In a podcast alternate with Cathie Wooden, Lee framed the approaching competitors by means of a 1971-style lens, arguing that the tip of the gold customary 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 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 recognize, the ecosystem we count on to hit $25 trillion in 2030, the overwhelming majority of that in Bitcoin,” she stated, citing Bitcoin’s position as “a worldwide financial system, you realize, guidelines based mostly that we’ve been lacking because the US went off the gold alternate customary in 1971.” She requested Lee straight: “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 customary. The fast beneficiary was there was demand and a market to personal gold,” he stated.
However in his telling, the extra consequential growth was how finance rebuilt itself round an unpegged greenback. “In 1971, the greenback turned 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 customary. So Wall Avenue stepped in create merchandise to propagate the way forward for Wall Avenue, 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 at this time is 40 trillion in comparison with two trillion for gold. So in different phrases, gold is 5 p.c of all accessible property.” He then drew the crypto corollary. “In 2025, we predict all the things is now turning 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 might flip Bitcoin, just like how Wall Avenue and equities flipped gold submit ’71.”
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Crucially, Lee couched the flippening as a sectoral dynamic quite than a zero-sum wager. “That’s simply our working concept as a result of I’m nonetheless a Bitcoin bull,” he stated. “I’m very bullish on Bitcoin and I imagine [Ark Invest’s] targets for Bitcoin are literally reachable. So we predict Bitcoin’s truthful worth ought to at the very least be $1.5 to $2.1 million, however we will 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 lots of Wall Avenue will innovate” by means of real-world-asset issuance and collateral flows. “That will, in fact, present upside to a impartial good contract platform the place lots of Wall Avenue 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
