Key Takeaways
- Tom Lee asserts that the crypto golden age is not over, and tokenization is this year's core narrative.
- Lee predicts Bitcoin hitting $300,000 and Ethereum reaching $20,000 by 2026.
- He discusses the importance of Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization and Ethereum's role as a leading platform.
- Explains how the Bitcoin four-year cycle is invalidated, predicting Bitcoin to make a new high next January.
- Highlights the role of crypto treasury firms in bridging the gap between traditional finance and DeFi.
- Answers community questions about the impact of macroeconomic factors on crypto and the importance of holding ETH for financial institutions.
Introduction
At Binance Blockchain Week, Tom Lee, a well-known Wall Street analyst and Head of Research at Fundstrat, delivered a presentation entitled "The Cryptocurrency Supercycle is Still Here." He pointed out that the real golden age of cryptocurrencies has only just begun, giving 2026 price targets of $300,000 for Bitcoin and $20,000 for Ethereum, detailing the value of thousands of cryptocurrencies, and explaining why the old four-year cycle numbers have been underestimated.
The Amazing Growth of Cryptocurrencies
Tom Lee reviewed the investment returns of the past decade, highlighting the amazing growth potential of cryptocurrencies. He pointed out that if you had invested in the S&P 500 index in December 2016, your funds would have increased approximately threefold; investing in gold, you might have seen them quadruple. But if you were wise enough to invest in Nvidia at the time, you would have seen a 65-fold return. However, if you had invested in Bitcoin a decade ago, your return would have been an astonishing 112-fold. Outperforming Bitcoin was Ethereum, whose ten-year return is close to 500-fold.
Positive Events in 2025
Despite the poor price performance of the crypto market so far in 2025, this year we have witnessed many significant fundamental positive events:
- Government Attitude Shift: The U.S. government has demonstrated a pro-crypto stance, setting a new standard for the Western world.
- Strategic Bitcoin Reserves: Multiple U.S. states and federal governments have planned or implemented strategic Bitcoin reserves, which is a huge advancement.
- ETF Success: BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF has become one of its top five products in terms of fee revenue, which is unprecedented for a product launched just a year and a half ago.
- Traditional Finance Entry: JPMorgan Chase, a crypto critic for many years, is now launching the JPMorgan Coin (JPM Coin) on Ethereum. Tokenization has become a priority for all mainstream financial institutions.
- Native Product Breakthroughs: Two or three native products have emerged in the crypto market that have changed the way traditional finance makes decisions. For example, the prediction market PolyMarket provides near "crystal ball" like information; Tether has proven itself to be one of the top ten most profitable banks globally.
Tokenization: The Core Narrative of 2025
Tom Lee believes that the core narrative of 2025 is tokenization. It all started with stablecoins, which were Ethereum's "ChatGPT moment." Wall Street suddenly realized that huge profits could be made simply by tokenizing the U.S. dollar. Financial institutions now widely believe that tokenization will change the entire financial industry, with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink even calling it "the greatest and most exciting invention since double-entry bookkeeping."
He further pointed out that the "beginning of the tokenization of all assets" that Larry Fink talked about unlocks far more value than people imagine. Tokenization has five major advantages: fractional ownership, reduced costs, 24/7 global trading, greater transparency, and theoretically better liquidity. These are just the basics. Most people's understanding of tokenization is just a simple asset split, but the real revolution lies in the second way: "factorizing" the future value of a business. Take Tesla as an example. We can break it down and tokenize it in multiple dimensions:
- Time Tokenization: Purchase the net present value of Tesla's earnings in a specific year (e.g., 2036).
- Product Tokenization: Purchase the future value of a specific product line (e.g., electric vehicles, self-driving, Optimus Robots).
- Geographic Tokenization: Purchase future earnings in a specific region, such as the Chinese market.
- Financial Statement Tokenization: Purchase a tokenized portion of its subscription revenue.
- Founder Value Tokenization: Even the market's valuation of Elon Musk himself can be stripped and traded.
This approach will create a huge release of value, and BitMine is actively looking for and promoting projects that push this field forward.
Positive Outlook
Tom Lee firmly believes that the golden age of cryptocurrencies has not passed, and the future growth potential is enormous. He explained that there are currently only 4.4 million Bitcoin wallets globally holding more than $10,000. In contrast, there are nearly 900 million retirement accounts worldwide holding more than $10,000. If all of these accounts allocated to Bitcoin, that would mean 200-fold adoption growth. A Bank of America survey reveals that 67% of fund managers still have zero allocation to Bitcoin. Wall Street wants to tokenize all financial products, and if you add real estate, this is a market approaching quadrillions of dollars. Therefore, the
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