$ETH Could Surpass $BTC Through Tokenization Wave, Says Tom Lee


BitMEX chair Tom Lee suggested $ETH could eventually overtake $BTC's market capitalization in a pattern similar to how U.S. equities surpassed gold after 1971, when the U.S. abandoned the gold standard. Lee presented the theory during an interview with ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood on Thursday.


$BTC's market capitalization currently stands at approximately $2.17 trillion compared to $ETH's $476.33 billion, making $BTC roughly 4.6 times larger, according to CoinMarketCap data. Lee oversees BitMine's $ETH accumulation strategy and drew parallels to the "Nixon Shock" period to support his projection.


Lee explained that when President Richard Nixon made the U.S. dollar fully synthetic and removed gold backing in 1971, the immediate beneficiary was #gold demand. However, Wall Street subsequently created products that established dollar dominance. The market capitalization of equities today reaches $40 trillion compared to $2 trillion for gold, Lee noted.


Dollar dominance evolved from 27% in GDP terms to 57% of central bank reserves and 80% of financial transactions by the end of that period, according to Lee. He identified #tokenization as the key driver that could enable Ethereum to achieve similar dominance in the crypto space.

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October 17, 2025 at 1:17 PM
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