Ethereum’s price outlook is starting to look less like a crypto trade and more like an infrastructure bet.
That was the core argument put forward by Tom Lee, who suggested this week that ETH could be approaching a major revaluation as traditional finance increasingly experiments with blockchain-based settlement. In his view, Ethereum is quietly becoming the operating layer for Wall Street’s next phase.
Key Takeaways
Tom Lee says Ethereum is being priced as financial infrastructure rather than a speculative asset.
Institutional tokenization is driving real-world usage on Ethereum.
Ethereum dominates tokenized real-world assets and stablecoin settlement.
Lee sees Ether reaching $7K–$9K by early 2026 if adoption continues.
Rather than framing Ethereum as a speculative token, Lee described it as the fuel for a financial system that is slowly moving onchain. As banks, asset managers, and trading platforms explore tokenized versions of stocks, bonds, and funds, Ethereum is emerging as the most widely used public network to support that shift.
Lee argued that this change alters how ETH should be valued. Instead of trading purely on sentiment, its price could increasingly reflect actual usage – transactions settled, assets issued, and capital flowing through smart contracts.
Based on that trajectory, he said Ethereum could reach the $7,000-$9,000 range by early 2026 if institutional adoption continues to build. Over a longer timeframe, he sees even higher potential as onchain finance matures.
Tokenization growth tells the story
The data backing that thesis is already visible. Tokenized real-world assets have expanded rapidly over the past year, growing from a niche experiment into a multi-billion-dollar market.
US Treasury debt has become the dominant category, followed by commodities and other traditional instruments. While multiple blockchains are competing for this activity, Ethereum hosts the majority of tokenized asset value, giving it a decisive lead in regulated, institution-facing use cases.
That dominance is not accidental. Ethereum’s security track record, developer ecosystem, and integration with compliance-focused tools have made it the default choice for large financial players testing onchain issuance.
Stablecoins cement Ethereum’s role
Beyond tokenized securities, Ethereum remains the main settlement layer for stablecoins. Roughly $170 billion in dollar-pegged tokens circulate on the network, dwarfing activity on most competing chains.
For institutions, stablecoins are not just a crypto product – they are a settlement mechanism. Ethereum’s leadership in this area means that even experimental onchain workflows often pass through its infrastructure, reinforcing network effects.
Wall Street signals are getting louder
Lee pointed to recent moves by major financial firms as evidence that tokenization is moving past pilot stages. Platforms like Robinhood and asset managers such as BlackRock have both made public pushes toward blockchain-based products.
More notably, DTCC announced plans to tokenize parts of US Treasury infrastructure. Given DTCC’s central role in clearing and settlement across US markets, even limited adoption carries outsized signaling value.
In Lee’s view, these developments suggest that Ethereum is no longer competing only with other blockchains, but increasingly with legacy financial plumbing.
Bitcoin and Ethereum diverge in function
While Lee remains constructive on Bitcoin, he emphasized that its role is fundamentally different. Bitcoin, he said, behaves more like a monetary asset or store of value, with price driven by macro forces and capital rotation.
Ethereum, by contrast, is being priced as a utility layer. Its upside depends less on narratives and more on how much financial activity migrates onto its network.
That distinction helps explain why ETH’s long-term case may diverge sharply from Bitcoin’s, even if both benefit from broader crypto adoption.
Lee’s conviction is reinforced by his role at BitMine Immersion Technologies, which has accumulated a large Ethereum treasury. The company’s holdings signal confidence that Ethereum’s infrastructure role will translate into durable value rather than cyclical hype.
A different kind of crypto cycle
If Lee’s thesis plays out, Ethereum’s next phase may not resemble past bull markets driven by retail speculation. Instead, price appreciation would be tied to throughput – how many assets are issued, how many trades are settled, and how deeply Ethereum becomes embedded in financial workflows.
In that scenario, Ethereum’s valuation would increasingly resemble infrastructure assets rather than purely speculative instruments. And as Wall Street continues to test onchain settlement, Ethereum’s role may shift from optional experiment to foundational layer heading into 2026.
