Tom Lee said blockchain and Ethereum could become the trusted settlement layer between humans and autonomous AI agents.
Lee stated ETH is entering an “Ethereum 2.0” phase, comparing it to Amazon before AWS and Nvidia before the AI boom.
He added that Ethereum would benefit from Wall Street building financial rails on blockchain and from the rise of agentic AI.
BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) Chairman Tom Lee on Thursday stated that Ethereum (ETH) could be the solution to the “uncanny valley of wealth” in his message to shareholders.
Lee compared Ethereum’s current stage to Amazon (AMZN) before AWS transformed the company’s growth trajectory and Nvidia (NVDA) before AI accelerated demand for its chips.
BMNR’s stock was down over 4% at market open, while Ethereum’s price dropped over 2% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Bitmine remained in ‘bullish’ territory over the past day, while sentiment around ETH fell to ‘bullish’ from the ‘extremely bullish’ zone.
Ethereum retail sentiment on July 16 as of 9:30 a.m. ET |
Lee borrowed the concept of the ‘Uncanny Valley of Wealth’ from roboticist Masahiro Mori’s famous “Uncanny Valley” theory, which suggests people become uncomfortable when robots appear almost human. In Lee’s version, artificial intelligence generates an increasing share of global wealth, leaving humans uneasy about AI’s growing economic influence.
He stated that blockchain technology, like Ethereum, offers a solution by serving as a neutral layer of trust between humans and AI.
Why Tom Lee Thinks Ethereum Is Entering ‘2.0’
Lee stated Ethereum is transitioning from its first phase of growth, driven by initial coin offerings (ICOs), NFTs, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and stablecoins, into a second phase powered by institutional adoption.
He pointed to a wave of tokenization initiatives over the past year, including projects from BlackRock (BLK), JPMorgan (JPM), Ondo Finance (ONDO), Coinbase (COIN), Kraken, and Robinhood (HOOD), as evidence that Wall Street is increasingly building financial infrastructure on Ethereum.
“Wall Street is building on Ethereum,” Lee said, adding that networks such as Robinhood’s blockchain – Robinhood Chain – ultimately strengthen Ethereum’s role as the settlement layer for tokenized finance.
Ethereum Faces Two Exponential Growth Drivers
Lee said Ethereum is positioned to benefit from two trends. The first is Wall Street’s migration toward blockchain-based financial rails through the tokenization of traditional assets. The second is the rise of agentic AI, which Lee said he believes will ultimately require blockchain infrastructure for identity, payments, and machine-to-machine transactions.
