Tom Lee made the case in BitMine's Aug. 17 update that the forces building behind Ethereum dwarf every prior cycle catalyst — the 2017-2018 initial coin offering wave, the 2020-2021 non-fungible token explosion and the stablecoin expansion that followed. Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors and chairman of BitMine, said the ETH/BTC ratio stands at 0.02994 and has moved above a long-term downtrend that had kept Ethereum lagging Bitcoin for several years.
"We are encouraged to see the ETHBTC ratio at 0.02994 and rising," Lee said in the BitMine update. "Markets are beginning to recognize the growing use of Ethereum for tokenization and agentic-AI applications."
The ETH/BTC ratio — which measures how much Bitcoin one Ether is worth — functions as a gauge of relative strength between the two largest crypto assets by market cap. A rising ratio means Ethereum is outpacing Bitcoin. Lee tracks it as a signal for where institutional attention is flowing inside the broader market. The ratio breaking above a multiyear downtrend is the specific trigger behind his call.
Lee drew a direct line from past adoption waves to what he expects next. The ICO boom of 2017-2018 flooded Ethereum with project launches and transaction demand. The NFT and decentralized application surge of 2020-2021 added another layer. Stablecoin growth on Ethereum and other smart-contract networks followed. Lee's argument is that Wall Street tokenizing stocks, bonds and funds onto blockchain rails — combined with AI agents transacting on-chain — represents a user base and fee-generating volume that exceeds all three prior cycles combined.
Earlier in August, Lee went further, arguing that Ethereum is positioned to become the primary settlement layer for traditional finance. Tokenized real-world assets — equities, fixed income, fund units — require infrastructure to settle, verify and clear transactions. Ethereum's programmable smart-contract layer is the leading candidate for that role. Lee added that easing financial conditions would act as an additional tailwind for crypto broadly.
BitMine's own position makes the conviction concrete. The company reported Aug. 17 that it holds 5.8 million ETH, equal to 4.8 percent of Ethereum's total circulating supply of 120.7 million ETH. At the ETH price of $1,893 used in the filing, that position is valued at roughly $11 billion. BitMine added 9,926 ETH in the week preceding the report, continuing an active accumulation program. At the verified live price of $1,895 as of Aug. 18, the position's value is essentially unchanged.
To put the 5.8 million ETH figure in context: Ethereum's total supply sits at 120.7 million ETH, meaning BitMine controls a block of the network comparable to a major institutional custodian. No single non-protocol entity routinely discloses a position of that scale in ETH.
The stock market responded to the update. BitMine shares — trading under the ticker BMNR — rose roughly 3 percent in morning trade on Aug. 18 alongside a broader move higher in crypto equities. Bitcoin traded at $64,150, up 1.1 percent over 24 hours, while ETH held at $1,895, down 0.3 percent on the day. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index registered 41, in fear territory, meaning Lee's bullish call arrives while retail sentiment is still cautious.
The three prior cycles Lee references each had a clear structural driver. In 2017-2018, new token projects launched on Ethereum to raise capital, driving network usage and ETH demand as the gas token for every transaction. In 2020-2021, NFT platforms and decentralized finance protocols consumed block space at record rates. The stablecoin expansion — USDT and USDC both run heavily on Ethereum — added a persistent, utility-driven base of transactions that persisted even as speculative activity cooled.
Lee's two new drivers — tokenization and agentic AI — each operate through Ethereum's smart-contract layer but bring institutional-scale transaction volumes. Tokenized securities require on-chain settlement logic, custody rules and transfer restrictions, all encoded in contracts. Agentic AI systems that interact with blockchain protocols generate programmatic transactions rather than human-initiated ones, creating a category of volume that does not depend on retail participation or speculative sentiment.
The ratio call is testable in real time. At 0.02994, ETH buys roughly 0.03 BTC. If Lee's thesis plays out and the ratio makes the "sizable move higher" he described in the Aug. 17 update, the relative gain in ETH against Bitcoin would be visible in this single number. The prior cyclical peaks in the ratio — during the ICO era and again during the NFT boom — both came with multifold moves from trough to peak. Lee stopped short of giving a specific ratio target in the update.
