Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmain and Emergent Technologies, has strongly backed the 'ETH 2.0 thesis,' arguing that Ethereum is at an undervalued inflection point similar to Amazon before its AWS pivot and Nvidia before the AI boom. He made the case in a recent post titled 'ETH is the Cure for the Uncanny Valley of Wealth,' claiming that individual investors' panic selling has left ETH 'absurdly undervalued.' At the time of writing, ETH traded at $1,844, down 46.97% over the past year and 63% below its all-time high of $4,953 from August 2025.
Institutional adoption as a catalyst
Lee pointed to institutional moves as evidence of Ethereum's long-term value. Tokenized products from BlackRock (BUIDL) and JPMorgan (MONY) are already being built on Ethereum, signaling that Wall Street's 'real usage' has begun. He also highlighted that major firms like Bitmain operate as validators on the network, and that the Ethereum Foundation's holdings have shrunk to just 0.1% of total supply, making the ecosystem more decentralized.
Security and the AI agent era
Lee argued that Ethereum's security and immutability make it well-suited for the age of AI agents. He sees it evolving into a 'payment rail' for automated computing resources. In the short term, he predicts ETH could reach $2,200 by August, and long-term, if Bitcoin hits $250,000, ETH could climb to $12,000. He noted the current ETH/BTC ratio at 0.029 suggests some capital could rotate from Bitcoin to Ethereum.
RWA settlement and ambitious price targets
Lee went further, suggesting that if Ethereum becomes the central network for tokenized real-world asset (RWA) settlement and clearing, the price could reach $65,000. Ultimately, he envisions a market cap of $5 trillion, translating to $250,000 per ETH over several years. Market reactions are mixed, with some calling the forecasts exaggerated, but most agree that institutional adoption is bolstering Ethereum's medium-term narrative. The recovery pace will likely depend more on actual adoption expansion than on mere expectations.