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.

“We are encouraged to see the ETH/BTC ratio at 0.02994 and rising. This ratio has moved above the long-term downtrend in place over the last few years and is a sign, in our view, that markets are beginning to see materialization of tokenization and agentic-AI applications, which should benefit Ethereum,” Lee said.

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Ethereum Buying Slows While Buybacks Accelerate

BitMine holds 5,815,164 ETH, roughly 4.8% of the 120.7 million supply. This stack is worth about $11 billion with ETH trading near $1,902. Total crypto and cash reached $11.4 billion, including 210 BTC.

Purchases have thinned, however. The firm added 9,926 ETH last week, compared with a weekly average of 59,998 ETH across 43 weeks of disclosed purchases.

The past five weeks are the only weeks below 11,000 ETH since late October. Purchases over that period peaked at 138,452 ETH in December. Reaching 5% requires roughly 220,000 more tokens, or under four weeks at that earlier pace. 

Capital went elsewhere instead. BitMine repurchased 1.7 million shares last week and 20.8 million shares since July 1, which Lee called the largest buyback executed by any crypto digital asset treasury. 

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