Ethereum could eventually surpass Bitcoin’s market share in a similar manner to how US equities overtook gold 54 years ago, when the US abandoned the gold standard, according to BitMEX chair Tom Lee.
“Ethereum could flip Bitcoin similar to how Wall Street and equities flipped gold post 71,” Lee said in an interview with ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood on Thursday.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) market capitalization is about 4.6 times larger than Ethereum’s, standing at roughly $2.17 trillion compared to $476.33 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Lee brings up the “Nixon Shock” to support Ethereum’s argument
Lee, who oversees BitMine’s Ethereum accumulation strategy, suggested Ethereum could rise in the same way the US dollar rose to dominance after 1971, after US President Richard Nixon made the US dollar “fully synthetic” and no longer backed by gold.
Lee said that when that happened, “The immediate beneficiary was demand and a market to own gold.”
However, in response, “Wall Street created products that made the dollar dominant, and the market cap of equities today is 40 trillion compared to 2 trillion for gold,” he said.
“Dollar dominance by the end of that period went from 27% in GDP terms but to 57% of central bank reserves, and 80% of financial transactions, quotes,” he said, adding:
“Dollar dominance is going to be the opportunity of Ethereum,” he said, adding this will be because of “everything becoming…tokenized.”
The flippening has been an ongoing debate for years
“So as we move dollars onto the blockchain, which is stablecoins, we’ll move stocks and real estate,” he said.
However, he emphasized that it is still a “working theory” and that he remains a Bitcoin bull.
The “flippening,” the idea that Ethereum will one day surpass Bitcoin’s market capitalization, has been a topic of debate for years but has gained renewed attention in recent months.
In August, Consenys founder Joseph Lubin said that Ethereum will “surge by 100 times and flip Bitcoin as a “monetary base.”
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But it came around the same time that Bitcoin advocate and Jan3 founder Samson Mow said that Ethereum investors would switch back to Bitcoin once ETH prices were high enough.
Years before that in August 2021, DeVere Group CEO Nigel Green, “Ethereum’s ascent to the top of the cryptoverse seems unstoppable.”
“Ethereum is already years ahead of Bitcoin in everything but price and fame,” said Green.
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