Tom Lee, veteran buying and selling analyst, Fundstrat co‑founder, and the strategist behind BitMine’s Ethereum treasury strategy, is as soon as once more championing Ethereum.
Throughout an interview with Mario Nawfal on X, Lee acknowledged how the broader crypto neighborhood appeared to desert Ethereum in favor of quicker alternate options like Solana and Sui. Nevertheless, institutional buyers, significantly Wall Road gamers, worth one thing much more essential, which only Ethereum can provide.
Retail Chases Pace, Wall Road Favors Reliability
In the interview, Lee challenges the idea that blockchain networks should prioritize transaction pace above all. Fairly, he argues that institutional buyers, significantly Wall Road buyers, place a lot larger worth on uptime and reliability, qualities that Ethereum has regardless of being slower at its base layer.
Lee mentioned that retail buyers deserted Ethereum as a result of they thought quicker was higher, main them towards high-throughput networks like Solana and Sui with seemingly superior economics. However in keeping with him, Wall Street thinks differently. Establishments prioritize “100 % uptime,” as a result of they’ll all the time deploy on layer‑2 options to compensate for Ethereum’s base-layer pace limitations.
Curiously, Lee pointed to staking as one other issue wherein Ethereum is best than its counterparts. In keeping with Lee, staking isn’t nearly yield, nevertheless it’s about affect. “If Goldman stakes sufficient ETH, they’ve a constructive voice on the Ethereum itself and the way they improve,” he mentioned. In brief, institutional stakeholders like Goldman Sachs would care extra about influencing Ethereum via staking, however this isn’t a weak spot.
Lee famous that many veteran buyers he lately spoke with nonetheless see Ethereum as underperforming, not due to any technological shortcomings, however as a result of its worth constantly lagged behind Bitcoin for months. Nevertheless, this notion is now beginning to shift with Ethereum’s worth motion since July.
After Ethereum broke previous $4,800, the energy in worth is bettering confidence amongst crypto buyers, and this momentum may set the stage for a lot bigger development for its worth motion within the close to future.
Ethereum Value Motion
Ethereum certainly has been on a outstanding upward arc since July. In late August 2025, the Ethereum worth smashed via its earlier all‑time excessive and traded above $4,880 for the primary time since 2021, earlier than lastly peaking at $4,946. This, in flip, noticed the Ethereum complete market cap virtually hitting the $600 billion mark
The rally wasn’t simply worth motion. It echoed structural shifts within the institutional influx dynamics into giant cryptocurrencies, particularly as seen within the performance of Spot Ethereum ETFs compared to Bitcoin.
Though Ethereum has since entered into a correction path down to the $4,400 degree, the sentiment surrounding Ethereum remains to be bullish. Analysts have raised yr‑finish forecasts of Ethereum from between $6,000 and $12,000, based mostly on increased institutional engagement and a constructive affect from the US Genius Act. On the time of writing, Ethereum is buying and selling at $4,390, up by 1.1% up to now 24 hours.
Featured picture from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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