Tom Lee Sees Ethereum Pulling Ahead of Bitcoin — and Names 2 Reasons

Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee says the ETH/BTC ratio has broken above a multi-year downtrend. He reads the shift as markets pricing in tokenization and agentic-AI demand for Ethereum (ETH). The comment accompanied BitMine’s weekly treasury update.

It showed the company sharply slowing its Ethereum purchases while stepping up its own stock repurchases. Why the ETH/BTC Ratio Matters to Lee The ratio measures Ethereum’s performance relative to Bitcoin.

A rising ETH/BTC ratio is often interpreted as improving relative demand for Ethereum, while a declining ratio indicates stronger Bitcoin performance. Lee has argued that the ratio has risen during crypto bull cycles.

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) drove the 2017 and 2018 move, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) drove the next one, and stablecoins drove 2025. He now points to Wall Street settling assets onchain and to agentic AI, meaning software agents that transact without human input.